1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER
 
The one hundred sixty-eighth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:01 a.m. on Friday, June 8, 2018 by Board Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.
 
Present were Board members: Jamie Black, Susan Brown, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Tara Sidwell.
 
Also present were: Mandy Knapp, Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott, and Jamie Pardee (State Library); Michelle Francis and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council); and Holly Varley (Dayton Metro Library).
 
ACTION ITEMS
 
2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
 
Travis McAfee motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown 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 reported that Missy Lodge is retiring at the end of September, and there has been a lot of interest in the position even with limited distribution outside of the state’s posting site. The State Library is accepting proposals for competitive LSTA grants up to $50,000 with a 25% match; application deadline is in September, to be awarded in December. At their meeting this week, the State Library Board approved some LSTA funding, state subsidy funding for the regional library systems and the Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled, and OPLIN Board members for next fiscal year.
 
Doug Evans reported on OLC’s many recent and upcoming professional development events, including the New Directors’ workshop series; there have been over 60 director changes in Ohio public libraries in the past two years. The focus in 2019 for professional development will be community engagement, facilities, safety and security, and an on-demand, on-line series, possibly addressing HR management. OLC Board and Division elections are coming up starting the end of June.
 
Michelle Francis reported that state revenues have been coming in 3% above estimates; the PLF distribution for the current fiscal year 2018 came in $7 million more than originally estimated. The Ohio House has not had session since OLC’s Legislative Day April 11 until June 6 when they elected Speaker Ryan Smith from Gallipolis, and the next day passed 27 bills and resolutions. The House and Senate have extended their session calendars through the end of June. Francis discussed OLC’s efforts with HB292 to address issues with library bond ratings and limits on borrowing against PLF. Legislative Day 2019 will be at the Statehouse on April 9. Four different libraries will be presenting next Tuesday at the Governor’s Workforce Development Board meeting at Columbus Metropolitan Library: Bossard, Columbus Metro, Greene County, and Avon Lake. They will discuss library services and partnerships related to workforce development. OLC hopes to stream the meeting on Facebook Live.
 
 
4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 13 meeting
 
Jeff Garringer motioned to approve the minutes of the April 13, 2018, 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
 
Projecting out cash balance to decrease gradually over next three fiscal years to a more comfortable $1.7 million. One more month remains in this fiscal year, and expenses are pretty much on track; there is an available balance of $1.3 million in this fiscal year for appropriations. Overall expenditures for next fiscal year are expected to be higher.
 
Jamie Pardee reviewed the financial reports, noting that disbursements remain in line with estimates for this time of year. About $94,000 remains in unplanned spending authority, with a projected cash balance of $2.5 million remaining at the end of this fiscal year. Pardee noted that none of the Ohio Web Library Specialists have taken advantage of the offer to reimburse mileage, so those funds will just return to the cash balance at the end of the fiscal year.
 
Jamie Black suggested the Board table accepting the financial reports until after discussion of agenda item 6.1. “Selection of continuous learning resources,” as those expenses are anticipated in the draft financial reports.
 
6. OLD BUSINESS
 
6.1. Selection of continuous learning resources
Don Yarman reviewed the history of this project, beginning with the budget language that recognized public libraries as continuous learning centers and directing that job skills resources be made available to Ohioans through the Ohio Digital Library, and how OPLIN stepped in to position resources on a statewide basis, as ODL does not have statewide participation. OPLIN issued an RFP for continuous learning resources with a focusing on job skills development. Proposals came from Brainfuse, Xello, EBSCO, Gale, and Lynda.com.
 
Yarman introduced Holly Varley, a member of OPLIN’s Content Advisory Committee and a new appointee to the OPLIN Board; Varley will begin her term in July. The Content Advisory Committee reviewed the proposals and gave their priorities for negotiation. Staff were concerned that content and services proposed would replicate those currently provided by Ohio’s Department of Jobs and Family Services through OhioMeansJobs.com, and reached out to OMJ/JFS for assistance, connecting with Mark Birnbrich and Tanya Calbert. They detailed the role of OMJ in tracking activities necessary for unemployment disbursement, and offered to review the products for overlap. After eliminating proposals that replicated existing services or were not recommended by the Content Advisory Committee, only Gale Courses and lyndaLibrary remained.
 
Yarman outlined the different pricing/licensing models of the two products, and compared how the two products align with Ohio’s list of in-demand jobs, an evaluation component specified in the RFP. Jamie Black praised Lynda.com content and the pricing offered, but expressed concern about the ability to continue offering the product beyond the three years proposed. Michelle Francis explained how the legislature was impressed with the resources available through the Ohio Digital Library, and separately were looking for solutions for retirees and veterans looking to acquire new skills, especially in rural areas. Francis shared her opinion that providing these resources presents an advocacy opportunity with the in-coming General Assembly for library services, particularly in regard to technology and career development. Beverly Cain added that, with data showing that the project was successful, there would be a strong opportunity to ask for additional funding for support.
 
Susan Brown asked how the original $500,000 budget was set -- Stephen Hedges selected a round number in line with other subscription costs – and questioned what analytics would be available to demonstrate outcomes. Mandy Knapp discussed past experiences gathering customer satisfaction data, and Karl Jendretzky outlined the many datapoints available via the stats API access that Lynda.com provided him.
 
Chris May contrasted his library’s experience with Gale Courses, seeing the 6-8 week commitment for classes as a deterrent, and the content not meeting workforce development needs. Mandy Knapp affirmed that the Content Advisory Committee preferred Lynda.com.
 
There was some discussion about other uses OPLIN might make of the cash reserves, and what a desirable cash balance to have on hand would be.
 
Jamie Black motioned to increase the budget for job skills/continuous learning resources up to $725,000; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no additional discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.
 
Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.
 
Jamie Black motioned to accept the financial reports; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.
 
6.2. Phishing awareness services
Some libraries report an increase in targeted e-mail campaigns attempting to steal login credentials or financial information (a practice known as “spear phishing”) against library directors and fiscal officers.  Karl Jendretzky has begun investigating the services of companies which provide benevolent phishing campaigns for the purposes of vulnerability testing and targeted staff training, with the idea that OPLIN could create generic campaigns geared toward public library staff. Libraries would join a queue to participate in a 2-3 week period of education/testing, and when that was over, clear out the accounts and on-board the next library. Because extended or on-going campaigns of phishing awareness are the most successful, he is exploring an alternative option, more like OPLIN’s OpenDNS service, where OPLIN operates a managed service provider interface to hand off accounts it licenses on behalf of libraries, letting libraries customize and manage their own phishing awareness campaigns. Travis McAfee and Justin Bumbico discussed how this service might be beneficial to their libraries, and McAfee asked for a more complete MSP proposal for the next Board meeting.
 
 
7. NEW BUSINESS – Don Yarman
 
7.1. Decide on staff raises
Yarman explained that with the passage of HB292, exempt state employees will be granted salary increases matching those negotiated by the employee unions.
 
Justin Bumbico motioned that, in that State of Ohio E-1 employees are expected to receive a 2.75% salary increase beginning on the first day of the pay period that includes July 1, 2018, and whereas this increase is expected to be allowed for other exempt state employees up to 2.75%, the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees, in accordance with Ohio Revised Code Section 3375.66(A)(1) which allows the board to fix the compensation of OPLIN personnel, approves adjusting the compensation of each OPLIN staff member to one that reflects a 2.75% salary increase beginning with the pay period that includes July 1, 2018; Chris May seconded. There was no additional discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.
 
Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.
 
REPORTS
 
8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Yarman reported on his experiences at the International Coalition of Library Consortia meeting in Detroit and the Net Inclusion conference in Cleveland, April 16-19. On April 21, he presented OPLIN’s Awards for Advanced Digital Researcher at Ohio History Day held at Ohio Wesleyan University. The Junior Award went to Devin Corrington and Parker Williams for their project “Nuclear Conflict, Peaceful Compromise,” and the Senior Award when to Molly Paker for her exhibit “Rosie the Riverter Campaign: Putting America’s Women to Work.” Both exhibits were selected to advance to the national showcase.
 
In-coming Board member Holly Varley introduced herself.
 
8.1. Library Services Manager report
Laura Solomon reported that OPLIN currently is running 80 Webkit sites, slightly over 31% of Ohio’s public libraries. She continues to investigate the eventual migration from Drupal 7 to 8. Jendretzky built a separate sandbox server running Drupal 8 for tests. It was recently announced that Drupal 8.6 will be released in the second half of 2018, promising improvements in the migration process and the addition of some critical third-party modules.
 
8.2. Digital Resources Manager report
Mandy Knapp reviewed the latest statistical report, noting that ProQuest and/or Ancestry have changed something in their reporting, so the drop in stats is either an error or a correction of an existing error. (Both companies are blaming the other.) Roll-out of the new resources is on track; the links are ready for distribution and will be announced closer to the July 1 live date. Knapp has ordered promotional bookmarks for Chilton’s, Transparent Language, and the genealogy resources, and will announce the availability of these on OPLINLIST later this month.
 
Forty individuals signed up to be in the Ohio Web Library Specialist program – 1/3 of them continuing from last year, and 2/3 new to the program. Former OWLS were surveyed for suggestions to improve the program, and in response OPLIN will host a meeting for OWLS at OLC Convention in the Training Zone adjacent to OPLIN’s booth. Knapp has set dates for the training sessions, and will contact new OWLS later in June after the ALA Convention.
 
Kent State iSchool student Eric Vescelius will be conducting his practicum with OPLIN starting in September. Vescelius currently works at the Gahanna Branch of Columbus Metropolitan Library; his main activities will be to create training materials for databases.
 
8.3. Technology Projects Manager report
Karl Jendretzky updated the Board on router deployments, which have stalled due to a delay in receiving additional rack mounting brackets. About 100 routers have been deployed. Jendretzky is verifying the new circuit orders due July 1; most are part of the big CLEVNET move to the core. The OPLIN-CLEVNET collector trunk is in production, with four libraries (all Everstream circuits) using it. With the new architecture, the Morley Library, which will be joining CLEVNET in the middle of the service year, can be mapped into CLEVNET without changing the circuit through their vendor.
 
Greene County and Worthington have signed agreements for space in the Co-Location Center. Jendretzky is organizing a tour of the SOCC for metro libraries.
 
Jendretzky has been working with OARnet to bring up redundant links for library customers that use the state’s CBTS phone system.
 
OIT has granted Jendretzky greater access to OPLIN’s routers, and as he completes his Juniper certification training, he is able to implement changes directly rather than wait for them to be pushed through OIT. It gives him the ability to help libraries out with smaller network issue, for example helping a library to configure the network to pass test required for payment card processing.
 
Internet browsers are increasingly preferring https over http, so some library-hosted websites are now showing “insecure” warnings to some users. Jendretzky has been helping those libraries implement SSL certificates for their web servers.
 
9. CHAIR'S REPORT
 
9.1. Executive Session to consider the compensation of a public employee (Director’s evaluation)
 
Susan Brown motioned to enter Executive Session to consider the compensation of a public employee; Jamie Black seconded.
 
Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.
 
The Board entered Executive Session at 11:58 a.m.
 
The Board returned from Executive Session at 12:02 p.m.
 
Joseph Greenward provided Don Yarman with a copy of his evaluation summary report.
 
9.2. Resolutions
 
The Chair recognized Chris May to offer the following resolution:
 

WHEREAS, Susan Brown has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since 2012, and   WHEREAS she has freely and unselfishly given of her time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board, including a number of leadership roles, most notably Chair of the Board, and   WHEREAS she has given thoughtful feedback to OPLIN’s operations and services, and   WHEREAS her wise counsel and considerate expertise will be missed by all members of the OPLIN Board, and   WHEREAS her service as trustee of the Washington-Centerville Public Library gave her a unique insight in to OPLIN and its services for public libraries.   NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED and that on June 8, 2018 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 Susan Brown during her tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and   BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to Susan Brown for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

 
 
Jamie Black seconded the resolution. All aye.
 
13. ADJOURNMENT
 
On motion of Tara Sidwell and second of Susan Brown, the Board adjourned at 12:05 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)

ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVENTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes - April 13, 2018

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-seventh meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, April 13, 2018 by Board Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jamie Black, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Tara Sidwell .

Also present were: Mandy Knapp, Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Michael Penrod motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Jamie Black 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.

Doug Evans reported that the Public Library Fund is almost 3% higher than forecasts this year. OLC Legislative Day was on April 11, the day after Speaker Rosenberger announced his resignation. Two hundred twenty-five library administrators, trustees, and staff attended, reporting good feedback with their meetings with legislators. Turnout and feedback was also good for OLC's Opioid Symposium held April 3. Evans mentioned that the upcoming "Opioids in Communities, Libraries in Response" events hosted by the State Library in partnership with OhioNET and the regional library systems will have a different but complementary focus. Chris May praised the timing of the symposium, as it gave libraries good information to discuss with their legislators and aides.

Evans gave updates on the status of HB312 regarding credit card use by political subdivisions, and HB371 which exempts new development properties from property taxes. He reported that representatives from OLC, OELMA, and the State Library will be meeting with Ohio Department of Education staff to discuss concerns that the State Board of Education's strategic plan makes almost no mention of libraries. Upcoming OLC events include trustee dinners and director advocacy training. Finally, ten libraries have issues on the ballot May 8; most are levy renewals, but there are 2 new levies and a few increases.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 8 meeting

Michael Penrod motioned to approve the minutes of the February 9, 2018, 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

Jamie Pardee reviewed the financial reports, noting that disbursements remain in line with estimates for this time of year. About $94,000 remains in unplanned spending authority, with a projected cash balance of $2.5 million remaining at the end of this fiscal year. Pardee noted that none of the Ohio Web Library Specialists have taken advantage of the offer to reimburse mileage, so those funds will just return to the cash balance at the end of the fiscal year.

Susan Brown motioned to accept the financial reports; Tara Sidwell seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. MOU between State Library of Ohio and OPLIN

Yarman reviewed proposed changes to the draft memorandum of understanding drafted by the State Library. The MOU lists the fiscal and administrative services that the State Library provides to OPLIN and the broadband services and subscription database licensing that OPLIN provides in return. State Library staff had estimated the cost in staff time for their services, and it is roughly $10,000 more per year than the cost of the broadband circuits to State Library and the SEO Library Center after E-rate refunds.

Jamie Black motioned to approve the terms of the memorandum of understanding; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.

 

Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS -- none

PLANNING SESSION

8. OUTCOMES OF CONTENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING - Mandy Knapp

Mandy Knapp outlined the Content Advisory Committee's work reviewing and scoring the responses to OPLIN's RFPs for genealogy resources and for job skills training resources. OPLIN has begun negotiating with vendors based on the priorities that the Content Advisory Committee had set.

For genealogy, the committee selected the products offered by ProQuest, indicating that they felt the company had overpriced their "HeritageQuest" product; acquiring a statewide subscription to that was a lower priority, although the committee did acknowledge that, because so many libraries subscribe to HeritageQuest on their own, purchasing it centrally would directly save money for many libraries. Knapp noted that OPLIN's negotiating power for HeritageQuest pricing is limited: genealogy content is a priority for public libraries, and ProQuest already has a broad subscriber base in place - they are unlikely to agree to take less money. And ProQuest is the sole provider of this content. The Board discussed concerns that ProQuest could ask for exorbitant increases in subsequent years, whether there were other, related products that ProQuest could add to the package, whether prices were out of scale with other statewide deals, and whether OPLIN's current cash balance predictions allowed for the increase.

Yarman noted that should the Board approve an increase in the budget for negotiating for statewide genealogy resources, OPLIN could ask for a pricing schedule for three years that caps increases at 3% and help return some subscription savings to public libraries.

Michael Penrod motioned to increase the genealogy budget up to $580,000 if ProQuest agreed to pricing increases of no more than 3% per year; Jamie Black seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.

 

Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.

Yarman discussed responses to the Job Skills RFP, the Content Advisory Committee's rankings, and concerns that the highest ranked products - while excellent - may replicate content and services already delivered through OhioMeansJobs.com. OPLIN staff have communicated with vendors to get clarification of exactly how their content aligns with the needs outlined in Ohio's "In-Demand Jobs" list (this was included in the RFP, but responses were weak), and how their content differs from existing offerings from OhioMeansJobs.com. In addition, OPLIN staff is reaching out to Mark Birnbrich of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services to get his input on which services are too duplicative.

Board members discussed their libraries' experiences offering some of the products, as well as their varying experiences with the local OMJ centers. As more information is gathered, OPLIN will discuss it with the Content Advisory Committee, and hopefully be closer to a selection by the next Board meeting.

9. REPORTS ON STATUS OF OPLIN SERVICES - OPLIN Staff

Yarman accidentally left this on the draft agenda. Staff will contribute to discussion of the Tactical Plan and give their reports later in the meeting.

10. REVIEW OF ANNUAL TACTICAL PLAN

Yarman noted that the Strategic Plan officially approved June 9, 2017, extends to the end of fiscal year 2021; the Board's intention was to review annually the services offered and the Tactical Plan. Yarman read through these plans, reporting on the relevant activities from this fiscal year with special attention to the Operations Goals within the Tactical Plan.

The table below contains the text of the Annual Service Plan, with notes on the current status of those services in italics.

Priority:
Maintain public connections to digital information sources
Strategy:	Strategy:
Provide and maintain safe and reliable internet connections to Ohio public library systems	Offer to assist Ohio public library systems with internal internet needs
Provide reliable broadband telecommunications circuits	Offer to assist Ohio public library systems with their branch connections
Operations Goal: 99.5% of OPLIN participants will have a functioning OPLIN connection to the internet 99.9% of the time. Met. The 7 hour Spectrum outage affected about 60% of the libraries, but the duration was well under the 0.1% goal.	OPLIN submits requests into OIT ServiceNow system, and offers assistance to libraries seeking E-rate reimbursements. OPLIN can bundle a library's local orders with larger statewide orders to help bring down cost of construction.
Provide bandwidth from providers of wholesale internet	Offer a network evaluation service
Operations Goal: 99.5% of OPLIN participants will have a connection to the internet large enough that their average bandwidth demand during peak hours will not exceed 70% of the connection capacity. Exceeded. For E-rate cycle, we upgrade in advance of meeting the need. All but one library is at or above 100Mbps. The OPLIN core currently has 20Gbps of internet connectivity, with peak usage being around 8Gbps. Redundant hardware and circuit paths to allow for reliability.	Operations Goal: Assist at least 10 libraries each year with resolving internal networking issues. Exceeded; Karl directly assisted between 20-30 libraries in past year.
Provide adequate network routing equipment	Offer annual E-rate workshops
Karl reported on progress of router replacement, and described the scripts that report the change in inventory. By next Board meeting, very close to complete with hardware replacement project.	OPLIN contracts with Lorrie Germann to provide 2 workshop/webinars per year. Don is considering how the format might change to better target public library patterns and needs.
Provide a filtering solution	Offer space to libraries in a designated area of the State of Ohio Computer Center
OPLIN has provided OpenDNS (now called Cisco Umbrella) since 2012. Currently 151 libraries with profiles. Working on renewal for FY2019.	Operations Goal: A current SOCC lease agreement with the Ohio Department of Administrative Services Office of Information Technology will be in effect at the beginning of each fiscal year. Met.
	Offer to sponsor at least one conference
	OPLIN was a Platinum Sponsor for OLC Convention and Expo 2017, and will be again for the 2018 event at Kalahari.

Priority:
Facilitate finding, retrieving and sharing digital information
Strategy:	Strategy:
Provide and maintain access to high-quality digital information for Ohioans	Offer to assist Ohio public library systems with digital communications
Provide subscriptions to selected databases	Offer a selection of archived email discussion lists
$1.2 million disbursed in subscription costs so far this fiscal year. Operations Goal: Meet with the CAC and any database purchasing partners at least once annually. CAC met March 28; LCO partners met at least monthly.	Operations Goal: Email discussion lists will be functional at least 99.9% of the time. Met; investigating tracking method.
Provide a website allowing free access to the online information	Offer generic public library websites
Operations Goal: Keep the public access website for the databases functioning as intended 99% of the time. Met, but no monitoring available.	Operations Goal: OPLIN-provided websites will be functional and accessible at least 99.9% of the time. Met; investigating tracking method. Laura and Karl moved all sites to https. Laura keeps all site software updates current.
Provide support for access to materials digitized by Ohio public libraries	Offer professional assessment of a library's website
OPLIN pays the DPLA membership fee for the Ohio Digital Network. Don is on the advisory committee for the Ohio Digital Network; Mandy participates in the Ohio Digital Interest Group and Community Engagement Center meetings. Ohio's first "ingest" of 10,000 metadata records is complete; ingests will occur quarterly.	Laura performed 6 audits, 2 current Webkit customers and 4 other library sites.
Provide the necessary technology to authenticate remote users	Offer a service that allows libraries to send notification messages
OPLIN provides EZProxy and flexible validation to cover a range of library options and subscription scenarios. Karl recently changed EZProxy logging for more accurate stats and to gauge load on the server. He also created algorithms that can block suspicious activity.	Operations Goal: Resolve any performance issues or open an incident ticket with the messaging vendor within 4 hours during regular business hours. Met.
Provide tools for integrating access to online databases
Libraries use OPLIN's links from their own websites to provide their patrons access. Recently, the Cuyahoga County Public Library has moved from their own local EZProxy installation to OPLIN's. Karl and Laura redesigned the library-card-entry page to be responsive to mobile screen sizes.
Operations Goal: Respond within one hour to malfunctions of database access during regular business hours. Met response goals. (Maybe not fixed in an hour, but responded.) Operations Goal: Make at least 80% of previous month database usage statistics available to public libraries by the 10th of each month. Met; Mandy does these on the 5th.

While not adding anything to the tactical plan officially at this point, in support of the first strategy, "Provide and maintain safe and reliable internet connections," Yarman said he intends to put marketing efforts into evaluating OPLIN's role in cybersecurity culture, and helping Ohio libraries become local leaders in cybersecurity response and information.

In FY2019, the OPLIN staff foresees these things on the horizon:

• A significant Drupal version upgrade (from version 7 to 8)
• Expansion of the Co-Location Center as more tenants join
• New EZProxy hardware
• A review of "What Tree Is It?"
• OIT Succession Planning
• New carpet and paint

The Board recessed for lunch at 11:30 a.m. and resumed discussions at 12:08 p.m.

REPORTS

11. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Yarman reported that he has been through the state's LeadOhio training program and found it valuable. He discussed OPLIN's new membership in the Ohio Cyber Collaboration Committee (OC3), a coalition of over 200 public, private, military and educational organizations across Ohio working to strengthen the state's cybersecurity culture. Their primary aim is to expand Ohio's educational opportunities to build a trained cyber workforce. Through capital budget appropriations, OC3 has overseen the development of the cyber range, a virtual training and testing environment within OARnet. Future goals involve developing volunteer cyber incident response teams to provide emergency assistance, notably to local governments. This last effort seems a great fit for the involvement of public libraries (local presence in all 88 counties; access through OPLIN to OARnet and the cyber range), and Yarman is eager to explore ways OPLIN can be involved in OC3's mission.

In early March, the Department of Justice notified OPLIN that 23 computers associated with IP addresses in 7 different libraries were compromised with Fruitfly malware, part of the indictment against computer programmer Phillip Durachinsky from North Royalton, Ohio, who is in federal custody. OPLIN notified the directors and technical contacts for each of the affected libraries, and is monitoring communications from the Victim Notification System as the prosecution proceeds.

Yarman will be going to the International Coalition of Library Consortia meeting in Detroit April 15, and from there will travel to Cleveland for the National Digital Inclusion Alliance's conference.

11.1. Library Services Manager report

On April 19, Laura Solomon will be speaking at the Computers in Libraries Conference in Washington D.C. about online tools. She reported that she has been working on new websites for Medina, Hubbard, and Liberty Center, and updating designs for a number of existing Webkit sites that have been around for a while.

Solomon and Jendretzky discussed their work with the old "What Tree Is It?" site, which was composed of a thousand static HTML files of different pages. They transferred the information from those pages into a database so they could create a dynamic front-end for it, and used Twitter's Bootstrap framework to create a responsive grid for mobile browsers.

Solomon reported that OPLIN currently hosts the websites for 31% of Ohio's public libraries - 75 sites are live, and 4 more are in progress. Because of on-going changes in staffing at those libraries, Solomon developed a new Welcome Packet to orient people taking over web management duties locally. She has revised the Website Kit Manual, utilizing bigger print, adding illustrations for most steps, and providing more video tutorials to demonstrate procedures.

Solomon discussed the coming upgrade from Drupal version 7 to 8, which entails a significant change to website backend: Drupal 8 employs new "engines" for both site mechanics and design. As was the case moving from Drupal 6 to 7, migrating existing customers to the new platform will likely involve hiring consultants to assist with the work.

Solomon outlined the webinars that she has been developing and delivering, including the Emerging Technologies webinars which usually fill to capacity, and expects that people will be very interested in more cybersecurity information. Her webinar earlier this year covering online privacy for patrons and staff was very popular. The webinar focus is content that library staff need which they are not finding elsewhere.

11.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp discussed highlights of the new set of Ohio Web Library resources purchased in cooperation with OhioLINK, INFOhio, and the State Library: Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Very Short Introductions (a print series available in ebook form), Transparent Language Online, Chilton Library (the popular auto repair resource), and Kids Infobits (a resource for children's learning). World Book and the EBSCO core collection are remaining in the new package; some new resources have been added to the EBSCO collection: Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center, Home Improvement, and Small Business. The only current resource dropped from the collection is Science Online, which had very low public library stats. Knapp has received very positive feedback about this collection, especially for the addition of Chilton's. Knapp reported that OPLIN is continuing to work through the process of retaining refunds or credits for libraries that currently carry individual subscriptions for resources that are becoming statewide. Knapp and Jendretzky are working to make sure authentication is in place for all the resources, and Knapp is coordinating vendor-provided webinars to train library staff.

As the state's public library contact for E-rate, Knapp has been responding to many "program integrity audit" requests, mostly verifying the existence of individual library bookmobile services.

11.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Jendretzky discussed the continued success of the SMS Gateway service, which grows by 30% each year.

He called it a "model service": it serves 130 libraries, sips at funds, and doesn't take much staff time.

In response to problems reported by CLEVNET about spearphishing campaigns against library directors and fiscal officers, Jendretzky has been investigating the services of companies which provide benevolent phishing campaigns launched against companies for the purposes of vulnerability testing and targeted training. His vision is that OPLIN could license a set number of seats, create a 2-3 week campaign geared toward public library staff, let libraries join a queue for the testing/educational campaign, and move through the queue sequentially to get as much use of the seats as possible. While extended campaigns are the most successful, this program would introduce libraries to the threats and raise awareness, encouraging them to continue vigilance on their own. Penrod reported that his library has used KnowBe4 for the past three years to great success. Jendretzky will review the options and bring a proposal to the June meeting.

Jendretzky summarized major work at OPLIN's core in the SOCC. As a result of hardware and network port diversity built into the Spectrum handoff to OPLIN, Spectrum was able to move circuits around with no outages. New console servers were installed so Terry Fouts can quickly access all OPLIN's hardware. Fouts and Jendretzky are working to bring the secondary core back into production; it has been in testing mode since the outage in September 2017, when the software-based connection between the primary and secondary cores failed, and half the network was left without a path out to the internet. The planned new architecture will include a secondary OARnet pathway.

The next milestone in CLEVNET's move to the Co-Location Space is to bring up an aggregation port to accept circuits into the OPLIN core; traffic from CLEVNET members will be routed through OPLIN's core into CLEVNET's head end. Instead of installing separate, costly vendor handoffs for CLEVNET libraries, OPLIN is leveraging its existing handoffs to save libraries money. There is the possibility as more libraries move into the Co-Location center that OPLIN could handle library branches similarly. This provides value to the libraries by saving them the cost of headend ports, but it puts additional work on OPLIN network staff by putting OPLIN in the middle of library networks. Bumbico suggested that OPLIN continue to move forward with CLEVNET, and expand on a case-by-case basis to see how each situation adds complexity and whether that is sustainable.

12. CHAIR'S REPORT

12.1. Approve recommendation from Nominations Committee

The Nominations Committee -- Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, and Travis McAfee -

Billman-Royer praised the quality of the candidates. They selected those that best preserved Board diversity, including state geography, size of library, gender, and trustee roles. The committee nominates

Holly Varley, Collection Development Director of Dayton Metro Library, to fill Cindy Lombardo's unexpired term; Angela Baldree, Director of the Franklin County Law Library and former trustee of the Morley Library, and Garalynn Tomas, president of the Lorain Public Library System board, to fill the seats left by Billman-Royer and Brown.

Jamie Black motioned to accept the recommendation from the Nominations Committee; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Yarman announced that the Nominations Committee suggests Michael Penrod for Chair, Travis McAfee for Vice Chair, Chris May for Treasurer, and Jeff Garringer for Secretary. The Board will officially move on this recommendation in June.

12.2. Begin Director's evaluation process

Yarman distributed the criteria used in the past to evaluate the OPLIN director to see if the Board wanted to make changes. Penrod asked that the spreadsheet be emailed to the Board members for their review; members will send comments to him, and the Board can complete the evaluation at the June meeting.

12.3. Recognition

The Chair recognized Chris May to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, JILL BILLMAN-ROYER has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since August 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 seven years, and WHEREAS her previous service as trustee at the Southwest Public Library gave her an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and WHEREAS the insight she developed throughout her career have always been a helpful source of information for the Board, and WHEREAS her focus and attention to detail have often proved beneficial, and WHEREAS she has consistently contributed her expert opinions to OPLIN Board 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 13th day of April, Two Thousand and Eighteen 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 JILL BILLMAN-ROYER 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 JILL BILLMAN-ROYER for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Susan Brown seconded the resolution. All aye.

13. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Susan Brown and second of Michael Penrod, the Board adjourned at 1:10 p.m.

 
 1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

 

The one hundred sixty-sixth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:06 a.m. on Friday, February 9, 2018 by Board Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Justin Bumbico, Susan Brown, Jeff Garringer, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Tara Sidwell.

Also present were: Karl Jendretzky and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Chris May motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown 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.

Michelle Francis gave updates on OLC’s efforts with HB312, concerning local government credit card use, and HB371, concerning property tax exemptions on new development properties. She reported that February PLF distribution was above estimates; so far, estimated revenue collections for the fiscal year have been on target. The general assembly is taking up the capital budget bill; no public library activity expected. Upcoming OLC events include the regional trustee dinners, fiscal officer CPIM conference, the first of this year’s New Director’s workshops, and most notably, a symposium on Ohio’s opioid crisis. The symposium will focus not on library services but of on the role of library systems as employers and public facilities. It will take place at the Fawcett Center on April 3^rd.

Beverly Cain reported that the public library data survey is now open; instructions have been shared more widely within the public library community than in the past, as often directors pass off sections of the report for other staff to complete. Congress has passed a federal budget that does not eliminate IMLS or Library of Congress. The State Library has fielded some questions about the impact of a federal shutdown; much of State Library does would not be impacted immediately.

The State Library, along with Ohionet and the regional library systems, is also working on an event in response to Ohio’s opioid crisis. This one focuses on impact on communities and explores resources for libraries and how they can position themselves as a resource for their community. This event will take place 4 times, starting in Gallipolis on August 6, and then in a different area of the state over the next 3 days.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 8 meeting

Jeff Garringer motioned to approve the minutes of the December 8, 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

Jamie Pardee reviewed the financial reports, noting that disbursements are in line with estimates for this time of year. About $90,000 remains in unplanned spending authority, with a projected cash balance of $2.5 million remaining at the end of this fiscal year. The $500,000 increase from last fiscal year is due to the timing of E-rate reimbursements.

Justin Bumbico 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.

6. OLD BUSINESS — none

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. MOU between State Library of Ohio and OPLIN
Sec. 3375.66 (A)(5) says that the OPLIN Board shall “Appoint the state library of Ohio as the board’s fiscal  agent,” and outlines the services that entails. State Library staff estimates that these services account for about 5.5 hours of staff time per week, totaling close to $13,500 a year. The standing handshake agreement has been that the State Library absorbs the cost of administrative services in exchange for Internet connectivity and bandwidth, but as OPLIN’s bandwidth costs shrink relative to speed, and the State Library’s administrative budget tightens, it might be time to consider a more formal agreement. Don Yarman presented a memo drafted by State Library staff that outlines State Library’s responsibilities and proposes a payment of $10,000 to cover payroll costs for staff time. In response to Susan Brown’s question about dates on the draft, Pardee noted that this was a first draft and suggested drafting agreements to cover two years. Justin Bumbico asked whether it would be best to drop OPLIN’s payment of the State Library connection and simply pay the full, estimated cost of staff time. Karl Jendretzky said there was no benefit, as OPLIN is not maintaining equipment at State Library, and the State Library’s connection cost is currently just a clean line item in the consolidated bill; it would be more of a disruption to change the contract to move it off of there.

Yarman will work with State Library to revise the proposed agreement, which will include spelling out OPLIN’s responsibilities, and present the agreement for discussion at the April planning meeting.

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Yarman reported that he and Jendretzky met with Terry Fouts, Greg Gicale, and Henry Smith on January 22 to discuss a plan for OIT installers to deploy the new routers at the libraries. Jendretzky has proposed six sets of 3-4 libraries around central Ohio to get them started, expecting that technicians can start their mornings at a larger library, then visit two smaller libraries in the area during the day. Jendretzky and Fouts will take guys out for first sites to show them how to do it, prepare them for different environments. Jendretzky estimates that the process could take about four months to complete.

Don Yarman and Mandy Knapp met with OLC’s Michelle Francis and Emily Modell of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation to review the draft RFP seeking on-line job training resources available from public libraries, verifying that the RFP addressed OWT’s goals. The RFP specifically highlights the list of in-demand jobs from JFS, and asks vendors to elaborate on how they will manage refunds to libraries that already subscribe. The plan goal is to release the RFP within a week; vendors will have about a month to respond, and the Content Advisory Committee can evaluate those responses at their meeting March 28. The target is to launch this close to July 1, with preparations far enough along so that it can be previewed at the June 12 OWT meeting at Columbus Metropolitan Library.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report
Mandy Knapp is at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver so she submitted a written report.

eRate
All of our Funding Requests (FRNs) for eRate year 2017 (July 2017-June 2018) have been approved by USAC, the administrative entity that oversees the eRate program.  I have sent the information necessary to file the BEAR form for circuit charges incurred between July 2017-June 2018 to Lorrie Germann. We can expect to receive that reimbursement shortly. As you will recall, a BEAR form is the step in the eRate process where we specify our reimbursement amounts. We should receive funds in the amount of $116,891.86. We will file a second BEAR form in July 2018, which includes both circuit charges for January-June 2018 as well as internet access charges.

In addition, we have filed all of the necessary Form 470s for upgrades and moves as needed in the eRate year 2018 (July 2018-June 2019). A Form 470 acts as an RFP, and begins the eRate process. A number of these were needed to move circuits for the CLEVnet change.
On the eRate training front, OPLIN and State Library co-hosted a Form 471 Workshop on January 29th. Lorrie Germann presented the simultaneous webinar and in-person session. There were 19 attendees total.

Ohio Digital Network (DPLA Hub)
The Community Engagement Centers (CEC): Ohiolink, OPLIN and Ohio History Connection, met on December 13 at the State Library. The CECs discussed ideas for working together on future training. Similarly, on January 19, a larger Ohio Digital Network meeting has held. The majority of the meeting were updates on progress. In order for the first ingest of metadata to occur, the Ohio Digital Network must have a minimum of 50,000 records. I am happy to report that that number has nearly been reached and the first ingest should occur sometime this spring. Also discussed at the meeting was the need for a communication kit for the official launch of the Ohio Digital Network. As with other states, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has waited until the first metadata ingest from the Ohio Digital Network to occur before announcing the hub.

Ohio Web Library
As you can see from the attached sheet, there is an uptick in usage in January in EBSCO stats and searches as well as World Book use. In addition, Ancestry Library Edition usage appears to be declining this month; however due to our ongoing issues with statistics from Proquest, I would not take these numbers as final. On my return from ALA Midwinter I will recheck the numbers for accuracy.

Ohio Web Library Specialist (OWLS)
I am pleased to report to the board that OPLIN is working with SERLS (Southeast Regional Library System) to expand the reach of the OWLS program. SERLS has allowed the OWLS the use of their webinar software to present on any database.  To date, two OWLS have signed up to present in this fashion. SERLS is marketing these free webinars to both libraries in their region as well as libraries statewide.

Libraries Connect Ohio
Negotiations for the statewide databases are proceeding as expected. On February 5, the selection committee met for an update conference call. Although I cannot share details at present, suffice to say that progress is following our expected timetable.

RFP for Genealogy Resources & RFP for Career Resources
On January 11, OPLIN released an RFP for a Genealogy database. This RFP is posted to OPLIN’s website and emailed to relevant vendors. Responses to this RFP are due March 2. Selection will be made by the Content Advisory Committee at their March 28th meeting. Vendors will be informed shortly after, giving OPLIN plenty of time to prepare before our projected start date of July 1, 2018 for this database.

We are also making good progress on our RFP for Career Resources and are on-track to release it by the middle of this month.

In addition, Yarman reported that Knapp has drafted a communications plan for the new Ohio Web Library collection, anticipating our need to implement changes in the collection smoothly across the state.

8.1. Library Services Manager report
Laura Solomon was unable to attend the meeting due to road conditions. Yarman reported in her absence that two new Webkits have been launched: Upper Sandusky and Euclid. By far, Euclid is the most customized site OPLIN has ever done. It included a lot of custom features, including the import of several thousand local history records (Recorded City Council meetings and issues of their [former] local newspaper), as well as various displays for custom content. Solomon is currently working on 4 new Webkits and 2 site redesigns for existing Webkit customers.

In January, Solomon finished the security review, ReCAPTCHA installation and backend cleanup of all of the Webkit installations, a project started in early 2017. The ReCAPTCHA installation was necessitated by the coming end of the currently-used Mollom service for spam protection. Mollom will cease operations in April 2018.

Solomon started a Facebook Group, the "OPLIN Water Cooler," as an advance move to head off the loss of engagement anticipated by the forthcoming split of Facebook's newsfeed.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report
In December, CLEVNET’s Spectrum link between Columbus and Cleveland was converted into a “Q-in-Q trunk,” which allows CLEVNET to extend their VLANs across the state, effectively “stretching” their network. CLEVNET has now begun migrating their equipment down to the Co-Location Center in the SOCC; they are scheduled to move their integrated library system hardware overnight Saturday, February 10. OPLIN is preparing to file the orders to transfer CLEVNET library connections from Cleveland Public Library to the SOCC, timing the moves as best we can to the E-rate cycle. Between OPLIN connection moves and Cleveland’s branches, there will be nearly a hundred separate orders to complete the move.

On January 30, the Columbus Metropolitan Library moved their head-end into the SOCC, giving them, like CLEVNET, 20 Gbps of connectivity direct to the OPLIN core. The large capacity means that small DDOS attacks will not affect service to the libraries, as they can be easily absorbed. Because 20 Gbps is currently well beyond the highest anticipated traffic for those organizations, Jendretzky is weighing limiting those connections, to perhaps 300% of needed bandwidth, to prevent accidental saturation of the link.

All of OPLIN’s physical servers have been migrated out of 322 into NR3. All of this work – migrating OPLIN servers, moving Columbus and library consortia head-ends into the SOCC – has happened very smoothly, with services shutting down and coming back up cleanly.

Even though AT&T hasn’t finished migrating OPLIN’s circuits into the new 10G AT&T head-end, AT&T now proposes to implement full redundancy for large customers. So that each 10 Gbps of connectivity to us will be handed off with two separate pathways (20 Gbps of connectivity), AT&T intends to install four 10 Gbps head-end interfaces. We are billed for any 10G ports until they are filled to capacity, and since AT&T is responsible for the timing of this, they have agreed to stop billing us for our current interfaces. Once completed, this project provides OPLIN with redundant connectivity to every vendor – AT&T, Oarnet, and Spectrum – and frees up hardware we can use to build more redundancy for tenants in the Co-Location Center.

Jendretzky wrote an automated hardware inventory script which scans the network to keep track of equipment serial numbers and devices. As things go forward with the new router deployment, everything will be tracked and our records updated in real time; information will be stored in OPLIN’s internal databases viewable through our office Quick Info Tool, giving us a higher degree of visibility where the devices are in our network.

We had a small issue with Trumpia, the service that supports our SMS Gateway. Messages through our gateway are preceded by a period and a colon; if the first character of the message is a capital-O (as in “Overdue”), the :O is interpreted by most messaging clients as a screaming emoji face. Jendretzky solved the “problem” by adding an extra space after the colon.

In January, OpenDNS accidentally disconnected our reseller portal from the library accounts, which removed enterprise licensing for every library for a day. This didn’t disable filters in libraries, just prevented higher level functions on the accounts, such as library logos, bypass codes, etc. It was repaired quickly, resulting in a major outage but with a low profile. Currently, 150 libraries are configured in OPLIN’s OpenDNS service. On January 25, Yarman and Jendretzky spoke with staff of the Wisconsin South Central Library System about OpenDNS filtering for library consortia, which they are considering adopting.

The new Oarnet DDOS perimeter protection is up and running in manual mode. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, the Worthington Library was hit with small attacks for about 10 minutes. On Thursday, it escalated to a 90 minute, 1 Gb attack. The system is actively mitigating all traffic to Worthington now, and we’re monitoring to make sure it doesn’t cause any issues, such as blocking legitimate traffic to and from the library. Our goal is to have automated notification, so that if Oarnet detects suspicious traffic they notify us, we verify against our tools to check for service degradation, and then we can activate mitigation and notify libraries of our action. As discussed, this service is paid for by not getting the usual reduction in cost in our annual bandwidth bill.

Michelle Francis asked if we knew the origins of the attack against Worthington. Distributed Denial of Service attacks are by nature impossible to pinpoint; botnets can be rented for attacks, and it is clear that’s what someone did for this one. OPLIN will work with OLC to provide them the information they need to answer questions about cybersecurity measures in place that protect public libraries.

EZProxy service; some libraries dropping their own local (Cuyahoga County). They individually have to fight the same things we are doing centrally.

Justin Bumbico praised the Co-Location Center with its level of resiliency and security, thanking Jendretzky and Fouts for their support during Columbus Metropolitan Library’s move into the SOCC.

 
9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Appoint Nominations Committee

Joe Greenward appointed Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, and Travis McAfee to the Nominations Committee. The committee will work with Don Yarman to select candidates to fill current and upcoming vacancies on the OPLIN Board and will develop a slate of proposed officers for election at the August Board meeting.

9.2. Review April planning meeting arrangements

At the request of the Chair, Don Yarman explained the usual procedures for the planning meeting and lunch arrangements. As no extraordinary items requiring extra discussion are anticipated, the Board decided to meet at the usual 10:00 meeting time rather than earlier.

9.3. Ethics training reminder

Board members are reminded that they must complete ethics training each year. Beverly Cain said the Ohio Ethics Commission has just released the link to updated training, and she will send to Don Yarman for distribution to the Board.

 
10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Susan Brown and second of Jeff Garringer, the Board adjourned at 11:18 a.m.

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-fifth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, December 8, 2017 by Board Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Tara Sidwell.

Also present were: Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Michael Penrod 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.

Doug Evans reported that the December PLF distribution was slightly less than the Department of Taxation had projected, but overall, total PLF distribution for 2017 ($378.5 million) was higher than the 2016 total (an increase of 0.4%). Legislative Day has been moved from April 18 to April 11 as the General Assembly will not be in session on the 18th; Legislative Day headquarters will remain at the Capital Club. HB312 which specifies more stringent control policies for credit card use in local governments passed the house 95-0. OLC has been working to make some of the requirements more practical (in small libraries, there simply are not enough people to put into practice all the requirements the new law specifies), and they will continue their work now that the legislation has moved over to the Senate, which will take up the bill after the first of the year. HB371 exempts unsold but developed property from property taxes; this will have a big fiscal impact on some libraries, and OLC has joined with other local government organizations and the school boards association to express their concern.

Stephanie Herriott expressed Beverly Cain’s regrets for missing the meeting; she had a phone call with a legislator. Stephanie reported that the State Library Board would be meeting December 12 to consider a number of LSTA grant proposals. On the same day, the State Board of Education will be meeting to consider candidates for the State Library Board.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 13 meeting

Michael Penrod motioned to approve the minutes of the October 13, 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

Jamie Pardee presented the financial reports, highlighting the growing cash balance: $2.075 million at the end of FY2017, and a projected cash balance of $3.028 million at the end of FY2018. She stressed the importance of not letting the cash balance get too high so the Governor’s office doesn’t take the funds away. So far this fiscal year expenses are on target for what was projected. Our cost for OpenDNS licensing is approaching the state’s limit of $50,000; if it exceeds that, we will have to go to the Controlling Board for approval. Jamie budgeted $10,000 in travel reimbursements for OWL trainers. The report shows $613,287 in spending authority not currently earmarked for a specific projects or expenses.

Karl Jendretzky mentioned that, having upgraded all libraries to at least 100 Mbps, we should be seeing an increase in our monthly telecommunications costs. Jamie did not have on hand what Stephen anticipated would be the expected increase.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the financial reports; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS — none

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Decide on History Day sponsorship
Don Yarman reported that OPLIN was asked to sponsor the Junior and Senior “Advanced Digital Researcher” awards for Ohio History Day, as we’ve done three times previously. The awards provide $125 each to the two students who make the best use of the Ohio Web Library in researching their projects.

Michael Penrod motioned to sponsor the Ohio History Day awards; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7.2. Decide on OLC 2018 Convention sponsorship
The Ohio Library Council has invited OPLIN to sponsor the 2018 Convention and Expo, offering Platinum level sponsorship benefits for $10,000. Doug Evans thanked OPLIN for its past support of the Convention, and noted that OPLIN’s sponsorship of the event helps offset Internet access fees embedded in the rental costs at Kalahari Resort and Conference Center, and allows OLC to provide computers and charging stations for conference attendees. In addition to recognition of the sponsorship on conference materials, OPLIN will receive exhibit space with electrical service and meeting space for the OPLIN Annual Update meeting.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve Platinum level sponsorship of the 2018 OLC Convention and Expo; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Don Yarman highlighted major activities from the written report: the Ohio Web Library Product Selection meeting November 13, the addition of OWL Specialist mileage reimbursement to the budget, and information about the project to replace the fire suppression equipment at the SOCC. Only two of the five reviewers recommended the preliminary proposal to the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program for funding, so we were not invited to submit a full proposal. It does not appear that the development partners at Wright State University and the Greene County Public Library intend to resubmit. Don is working his way through the state’s training modules, has completed mandatory sexual harassment awareness training for supervisors, and the large telecommunications bills have begun to make sense.

8.1. Library Services Manager report
Laura Solomon reported that 24 libraries have installed the new emergency message function on their Webkit sites. We picked up 4 new libraries for Webkits since October. Laura rebuilt the Delaware County District Library’s existing Drupal site in the Webkit platform, and that was completed and launched at the beginning of December. Laura’s proposal to present about online tools at the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington D.C. next April was accepted.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report
Mandy Knapp reported that OhioLINK is currently negotiating with vendors for the desired Ohio Web Library databases selected by the committees at the November 13 meeting. We can’t yet reveal what products were selected, but the public library representatives in the process were pleased with the recommendations. A few of the OWL Specialists have completed the paperwork to become vendors for the state so they can receive reimbursements for their travel to other libraries for training; Mandy doubts that we will spend much of what we have budgeted, but the Specialists were very thankful that reimbursements are available. Five Specialists have already delivered the training they committed to. SERLS, which already offers database webinars every two weeks, has offered us the use of their webinar platform and promotional network for OWL Specialist training in the area. Partnering with OhioNET, we’ve offered a few vendor-delivered webinars for the databases; Ancestry has proven the most popular.

We have received almost all of the expected E-rate reimbursements for service year 2016; our 2017 paperwork is still in review. Right now, we’re working on service year 2018 paperwork. Lorrie Germann’s fall E-rate workshop had 60 attendees: 50 online and 10 in person.

Mandy reported that we are having problems with the Ancestry statistics for October, so the statistical report shows a drop that should not be there. We’re working with Ancestry to address that.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report
Karl Jendretzky updated the Board on his work rebuilding the servers that handle public-facing services to make them as stable as possible. The SMS Gateway services (which picked up three new libraries -- Portage, Kent, and Reed) were moved from locally-hosted servers to AWS hosting, which involved rewriting much of the code to upgrade the service from PHP5 to PHP7, and in the process improved the error-handling. He also moved OPLIN’s custom code server, which is kept separate from the Drupal and Wordpress sites to limit damage if either the content management systems or Karl’s custom code is compromised. Moving the SMS Gateway and custom code services to AWS freed up hardware, which is now used as backup for the physical servers that have to remain within the network: EZProxy and the listservs. (The code that handles database authentication logic runs on the custom code server in AWS, so if remote access through EZProxy goes down, in-library access to databases won’t be interrupted.)

Next week, CLEVNET is scheduled to move its core from Cleveland to the SOCC. Once this is accomplished, it will simplify CLEVNET’s topology as OPLIN will accept the CLEVNET member library connections and deliver them to CLEVNET on a single connection inside their private network. In addition, it saves OPLIN money because it eliminates the need for head-end ports for library connections up in Cleveland.

On November 9, one of Juniper’s large carrier cards in the core failed, taking out roughly 60 Gbps of connectivity inside the OPLIN network. The only actual impact was to a single collector circuit with a few “oddball” services: the OPLIN office and the dedicated VOIP circuit (which took out Columbus Metropolitan Library’s phone system). The office has since moved to a Spectrum circuit (also eliminating another head-end port cost), and the VOIP pathway is being moved by OARnet onto the collector trunk, so that will have redundancy going forward. The goal: to be so resilient and reliable that our services are transparent.

Karl and Don met with OARnet about DDOS protection. OARnet’s solution is in production: the entire state is protected by two scrubbing centers from two different vendors. OARnet is building out the automation for notifications, ticketing, and methods for Karl to identify and remedy DDOS attacks. We will pay for this service by forgoing the usual reduction in annual bandwidth costs (which is bundled into the annual cost we pay to OIT for management, etc.).

Karl and Mandy are working on a 470 for about 40 libraries; about 10 libraries need bandwidth upgrades, and the rest are due contract intricacies of connecting CLEVNET libraries to CLEVNET services at the SOCC.

Karl has added monitoring the connections to high-profile, cloud-hosted catalogs(similar to the monitoring of library circuits) so we can offer better troubleshooting if a library calls to report problems. For example, we’ll be able to tell if SEO’s remotely hosted library system goes down, affecting 93 libraries across the state.

As reported above, the 30 year old sprinkler system at the SOCC is being replaced. Karl listened to a conference call for SOCC tenants detailing the careful plans for replacing it: all workers are cleared to work near law-enforcement systems; moving section by section, contractors will erect scaffolding around the racks, putting up dust barriers and filters to prevent debris from being sucked into equipment; they will clean ceiling tiles on both top and bottom before removal; all cutting and grinding of pipes will be done off site, not in data areas. The air barriers around the racks will have temperature sensors to check that equipment doesn’t overheat, and they’ll do hourly walk-throughs around the clock with staff to make sure everything is stable. Although the sprinkler system is disabled, the smoke detectors will still function. New pipes will be filled with compressed air for a couple days to make sure they’re solid, then they’ll be filled with water at city pressure to make sure there are no leaks, then finally brought up to 220 psi for final inspection. Data center work will begin in January. Jill Billman-Royer asked if there were any concerns that additional costs would be passed on to us; Karl couldn’t say for sure, but believed it was part of normal building maintenance.

Justin Bumbico asked for more clarification of DDOS protection mechanism. Karl explained that all of OPLIN and OIT are behind OARnet’s services. OARnet can get alerted on DDOS events, and they are programming their ticketing system to pass the alerts along. Preferably, if OARnet sees an attack on an OPLIN IP address, they will send Karl an email with a JSON-encoded string so Karl can develop a daemon that picks out IP, time, duration, source, etc., and sends an automated email to a library with details. We want to make sure that we don’t overreact to false positives; most of the times DDOS events last about 5 minutes, and we have a greater risk of blocking legitimate traffic than we have from attacks. Our goal is to let the system monitor the traffic and learn to recognize “real events,” so that we can begin moving into more proactive blocking of legitimate, longer duration attacks. Karl used the example of the copyright notices and vendor maintenance announcements to illustrate his plans: his scripts pick out important information from the emails we receive, and turns them into emails (or, in the case of maintenance announcements, calendar invites) that are sent out to our technical contacts.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT
Chair Joe Greenward asked Don Yarman to report that Cindy Lombardo has tendered her resignation from the Board because she is retiring from the Cleveland Public Library.

The Chair recognized Chris May to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, CINDY LOMBARDO has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since June 2013, 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 four and a half years, and

WHEREAS her service as the Deputy Director at the Cleveland Public Library gave her an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and

WHEREAS the insight she developed as an experienced library administrator have always been a helpful source of information for the Board, and

WHEREAS she has consistently contributed her valuable opinions to OPLIN Board deliberations, and

WHEREAS he has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout her tenure on the Board,

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 8th day of December, 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 CINDY LOMBARDO 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 CINDY LOMBARDO for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Michael Penrod seconded the resolution. All aye.

Don explained that this is similar to the situation last December when Marty Beets left the Board. The consensus then was to fill the unexpected vacancy as part of the normal Board search and nominations process that will begin when the Chair appoints a nominations committee in February. Our records show that Jill Billman-Royer and Susan Brown will be completing their second terms on the Board in July, and that Chris May and Travis McAfee are completing their first terms. Don also reported that he received email from Jamie Black who is leaving the Loudonville Public Library Board but will remain on the OPLIN Board.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Cindy Lombardo and second of Michael Penrod the Board adjourned at 10:53 a.m.
 

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FOURTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes – October 13, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-fourth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 13, 2017 by Board Treasurer Travis McAfee at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jamie Black, Susan Brown, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, and Tara Sidwell.

Also present were: Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Bill Morris, Jamie Pardee, and Stephanie Herriott (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Black motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans thanked the OPLIN Board for their generous support of the OLC Convention and Expo; OPLIN's contribution made it possible for the 700+ attendees to have free Wifi. Doug reported that the October PLF distribution was $29.5 million, a little under the estimate but as the Department of Taxation is getting more conservative with their estimates this is closer than it was in the previous fiscal year. On Wednesday, October 10, Debbie Saunders was recognized by Ohio Senator Bob Peterson on the Senate floor for her award as Librarian of the Year, and she also received a commendation from the Ohio House. Kim Fender (OLC's 2017 Hall of Fame Librarian) will be getting similar recognition by the general assembly. Michelle Francis is working with local governments on a proposal to address concerns about legislation proposed by the Auditor of State's office regarding school and local government use of credit cards. The proposed legislation requires distinct separations between the compliance officer that manages the cards, the fiscal officer that pays the bills, and those individuals who use the credit cards. In small libraries, there may not be enough people to separate all those duties between them. And finally, the OLC Board will be making an appointment in November to fill the term Don Yarman vacated when he resigned from the board to become OPLIN's Executive Director. The Board has also appointed Meg Delaney as Ohio's ALA councilor to replace Jamie Mason who recently resigned for personal reasons. In January, newly elected Board members Tom Dillie (Minerva), Carol Herrick (trustee, Washington-Centerville), and Rick Rubin (trustee, Cuyahoga Falls) will be joining the OLC Board.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 11 meeting

Susan Brown motioned to approve the minutes of the August 11, 2017, meeting as presented; Jeff Garringer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Treasurer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the financial reports. She reported that about $1.5 million in disbursements have been paid for the current fiscal year 2018. The cash balance at the beginning of the fiscal year was about $2 million, with projections indicating that with this year's Erate reimbursements we'll have a cash balance of about $3 million. Last year's balance went down a million because of the timing of Erate payments, so they'll double up this fiscal year. She cautions us to watch that significant cash balance or the office of the Governor will appropriate it.

Jamie Black motioned to accept the financial reports; Susan Brown seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Treasurer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve State Library access to genealogy and continuous learning resources **

Don Yarman reviewed the current plans for licensing statewide content, including the $400,000 devoted to support genealogy resources and the $500,000 budgeted toward the purchase of resources in support of the Governor's Office of Workforce Transformation project. Before leaving, Stephen Hedges recommended asking the OPLIN Board to specifically approve including the State Library in access to these resources.

Susan Brown motioned to accept the financial reports; Chris May seconded.

Doug Evans asked if by extending access to the State Library they would be available only to state employees and not to the general public within the State Library. The understanding would be that it would include the public within State Library as well as remote access (if licensed) via a State Library card. Karl Jendretzky pointed out that this concerns only those databases that are restricted to in-library use, such as Ancestry, as others are authenticated for use anywhere in the state. Mandy Knapp agreed, adding that this mostly concerned statistics gathering and access to databases such as Ancestry (which we have not committed to acquiring) that are restricted to in-library use. Don Yarman noted that, 11 years ago, the State Library was routinely included as part of the contracts for products OPLIN acquired for public libraries.

There was no further discussion, so the Treasurer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS - none

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Don Yarman thanked the Board for selecting him as Executive Director, noting that he's delighted to be back with the organization working with such talented and helpful staff. Stephen Hedges was an admirable leader and a valuable asset to the state, and it's an honor and a challenge to succeed him. He noted that today is the deadline responses to the Ohio Web Library RFP. Also, the Co-Location Service has been announced to the library community, and we already have our first live tenant, the Central Library Consortium.

8.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon listed a number of libraries whose new Website Kits are nearing launch to the public: Euclid, Piqua, Upper Sandusky, and Delaware County. Staff from those libraries have been trained and are entering their data, or will be trained shortly. Our presence at the OLC Convention generated new interest in Website Kits and audits. We launched a new feature for the Kits – Flipping Book – which allows libraries to display PDF newsletters in a lightbox, with the interface replicating the look of turning pages. Laura will soon announce a new feature for the websites which allows libraries to easily place emergency announcements (such as emergency closures, maintenance issues, etc.) prominently on their site.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp reviewed the database usage statistics. She noted that the RFP for the Ohio Web Library closes today; we cannot see who submitted a bid, but we can see who looked at the RFP. The committees will meet in November to discuss the proposals, and we will have more information at the next Board meeting concerning the committees' early decisions and negotiating intent.

About 40 Ohio Web Library Specialists have all been trained. This program is similar to the iCoaches program developed by INFOhio. The OWL Specialists will be the point-person for database information and training in their library and they are available to travel to other libraries to conduct training as well (Mandy will help coordinate). OPLIN did not originally budget to reimburse the mileage for OWL Specialist travel, but we could allocate dollars from the “Unplanned Spending” line item.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that as more Internet sites move to https, browser appliances are starting to register certificate errors. The OpenDNS filtering solution we provide to libraries has a problem with "HTTP Strict Transport Security," the next generation of http redirection to https for secure web transmission, which removes the ability of a browser to make security certificate exemptions. Karl is working with Cincinnati for a fix – installing the Cisco root certificate in the browsers – while OpenDNS seeks a solution on their end. (Generally, this will only be a problem if the HSTS-enabled site is caught in the content filter and the user requests to by-pass the filter for access.)

The SMS Gateway service has been steady, sending about 100,000 messages per month for the last 6 months. We still have enough credits to sustain the service for next 18 months. Karl has built in safeguards that will stop sending messages if too many go out, preventing a rogue process at a library from accidentally depleting our entire credit balance.

On September 19, the OPLIN Core developed issues stemming from the solution Juniper provided to bind two cores together. Juniper is reviewing the problem because, as this is the solution they proposed, it's something they need to fix. The outage changed our method for migrating to the new location within the SOCC, but hasn't slowed the migration.

In addition, we are bringing up new AT&T connectivity at the SOCC. Currently, all AT&T circuits use Oarnet as a transport middle-man to connect to OPLIN; the new AT&T 10 Gb/s headend connection lets us remove all OPLIN circuits from Oarnet and plug them directly into our network. Rather than having CLEVNET install their own AT&T headend, the member library AT&T circuits will go directly into the OPLIN headend. Once we exceed 5.5 Gb/s of subscribed bandwidth, the headend cost drops to $0; the added bandwidth of the CLEVNET circuits will prompt AT&T to give us a second 10 GB port for free, giving us a redundant set of 20 Gb/s of connectivity into the AT&T network, which will cost us $0 monthly.

In early September, all Spectrum (formerly TWC) circuits were migrated from the 10 Gb/s headend in NR1 (Network Room #1) to the new 20 Gb/s redundant link in NR2, freeing up the 10 Gb/s port in NR1 for CLEVNET. So with the new 10 Gb/s port from AT&T, we can complete the upgrades to the 53 AT&T sites we started as part of the eRate cycle, bringing all but 4 OPLIN circuits to at least 100 Mb/s. We have a plan for the remaining four libraries – Cadiz and Bowerston have upgrade orders placed with Horizon, Grand Valley is waiting on OIT to turn up their circuit, and Huron will get their upgrade once CLEVNET moves to the SOCC.

Travis McAfee asked if were getting feedback from libraries on the upgraded capacity. Mandy replied that she is hearing that libraries' internal networks are not being upgraded to match the new capacity, so they're aren't experiencing an increase in speed.

We've been using Amazon Web Services to host the Web Kits; we upgraded to a nice, beefy server and the service runs very stable and provides us with great analytics and flexible alarms. Fifty-three of the sites have been moved to https, and the remaining sites will be migrated shortly. Karl would like to move some of the other public-facing servers onto AWS to minimize any public service impact stemming from hardware issues.

Overnight September 27, the Central Library Consortium moved their servers into NR3, becoming the first tenant in the OPLIN Co-Location Space. Once both cores are completely installed in NR1 and NR2, we'll be able to take full advantage of the fiber infrastructure we've put into the SOCC: 24 strands of fiber from each vendor space to each of the 3 network rooms, and 24 strands of fiber to connect the rooms together in a pyramid. In addition, Karl has ordered new handles for the rack doors, equipped with combination locks to keep tenants out of each other's spaces. hardware issues.

With the expansion of our available bandwidth, we've exceeded the capacity of our old DDOS appliance, which protected us against small attacks but not against the attacks which are getting exponentially larger. Oarnet is implementing a new solution which, in the event of an attack, will adjust routes to shunt the extra traffic through them, preventing attacks from saturating us. Oarnet has the new solution implemented with one provider, but there has been a delay finalizing it with the other (AT&T); Karl expects the solution to be in place by the first of next year.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

Joe Greenward did not send a report.

10. ADJOURNMENT

Susan Brown motioned to adjourn the meeting; Justin Bumbico seconded. The Treasurer adjourned the meeting at 10:53 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-THIRD REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — August 11, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-third meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 11, 2017 by Board Chair Susan Brown at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Jamie Black, Susan Brown, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Michael Penrod and Tara Sidwell. Former Board member Becky Schultz was also present, representing the Executive Director Search Committee.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain (State Library); Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council); and Don Yarman.

ACTION ITEMS

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Current Board Chair Susan Brown presented the slate of officer candidates recommended by the Nominations Committee: Joe Greenward, Chair; Michael Penrod, Vice-Chair; Chris May, Secretary; and Travis McAfee, Treasurer. Susan asked if there were any additional nominations or questions, and there were none.

The Chair called for a vote on the slate of officers submitted by the Nominations Committee; all aye.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so newly elected Vice-Chair Michael Penrod called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

4. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Susan Brown motioned to enter an Executive Session to consider the employment of a public employee; Chris May seconded.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Tara Sidwell, aye; and Michael Penrod, aye.

The Vice-Chair invited Becky Schultz to join the Executive Session.

The Board entered Executive Session at 10:04 a.m.

The Board returned from Executive Session at 10:09 a.m.

Michael Penrod motioned to appoint Don Yarman as Executive Director of OPLIN starting October 2, 2017 at an annual salary of $90,000; Jeff Garringer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY 2018

The Vice-Chair presented the proposed Board meeting schedule for Fiscal Year 2018 and asked for approval of the following schedule of meetings, all at the OPLIN office starting at 10:00 a.m. unless otherwise noted: August 11, 2017; October 13, 2017; December 8, 2017; February 9, 2018; April 13, 2018 (9:00 am start); and June 8, 2018. The Vice-Chair also asked for approval of two further meetings for planning purposes: August 10, 2018; and October 12, 2018.

Jamie Black motioned to approve the Board meeting schedule as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Vice-Chair called for public participation.

Michelle Francis shared information about the status of the Public Library Fund (PLF) since the beginning of the new state fiscal year on July 1; the current pending overrides of the Governor's vetoes should not affect the PLF. To date, revenues have exceeded official estimates, but the Ohio Library Council (OLC) continues to advise libraries to plan on flat funding this year. Michelle also provided an update on the work OLC has been doing with the Governor's Office of Workforce Transformation to satisfy some of the budget directives about public libraries working with state job agencies.

Beverly Cain announced that 319 people had attended the State Library's Bicentennial ceremonies on August 4. She also reported that the participation agreements have gone out to the first wave of libraries and institutions (31 total) that will be submitting materials to the Digital Public Library of America through the Ohio Digital Network. The State Library is now accepting applications from libraries who wish to join a consortium for sharing library materials for a special round of LSTA grants. There are about 60 public libraries that do not belong to such a consortium, depending instead on the MORE service, which has now ended; the last time such grants were offered, over 20 libraries joined a consortium.

7. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 9 meeting

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the minutes of the June 9, 2017, meeting as presented; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

8. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Stephen Hedges presented the financial reports prepared by Jamie Pardee. He reported that Fiscal Year 2017 is now closed, and he reviewed a few accounts that had no activity during the year, explaining why they had been inactive. He also provided brief descriptions of most accounts for the benefit of new Board members. Stephen made note of the large expenditure during FY2017 to purchase replacement routers for the library sites and duplicate the core router. On the FY2018 report, Stephen pointed out several accounts that would see changes from FY2017 activity, particularly noting that the expenditure for the Ohio Web Library databases is much lower than had been anticipated four years ago when the current vendor contracts were negotiated. Stephen also called attention to the large amount of E-rate reimbursements expected in FY2018, caused by the delay in federal distribution of FY2017 E-rate funds.

Michael Penrod asked if E-rate reimbursements would be received in a timely manner this year, and both Stephen and Mandy Knapp reported that all indications are that the federal processes are moving much more smoothly this year.

Chris May motioned to accept the financial reports; Jeff Garringer seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

9. OLD BUSINESS — none

10. NEW BUSINESS

10.1. Approve continuous learning resources budget

Stephen Hedges called attention to language in the current biennial budget bill that promotes public libraries as "continuous learning centers" providing job and career information resources and training. Michelle Francis from OLC has been meeting with Ryan Burgess from the Office of Workforce Transformation (OWT) to develop ways to fulfill the budget directives, and Stephen described his attendance at one of those meetings to discuss job training resources and how they might be provided to the public through libraries. The budget does not allocate funds for purchasing such resources. Stephen pointed out that one of the basic principles of OPLIN has always been that every public library in the state needs to have access to important information resources to reduce local differences in the amount and quality of information available to the public, and he asked if the Board would allocate OPLIN funds to provide some continuous learning resources to all public libraries, as well as providing technical expertise.

Michelle Francis provided additional information, noting that public libraries now have a representative on the Executive Workforce Board, and that Ryan Burgess has been an advocate in the administration for public libraries. She also pointed out that all Ohio public libraries contribute to OPLIN funds through the PLF.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to budget $500,000 per year for purchasing continuous learning resources; Chris May seconded.

Susan Brown asked for clarification on the learning resources: would they be provided by educational institutions? Michelle said not necessarily; many libraries already purchase these types of resources from vendors, and libraries would have input as to which resources to purchase. Stephen noted that the purchase process would be very similar to the process used to select and acquire Ohio Web Library resources.

Michael Penrod asked if the intention was to include the resources in the Ohio Web Library interface or to develop a separate, individually marketed portal for them. Stephen said that has not been decided, and anticipated that vendor licensing restrictions may affect the eventual decision. Michelle noted that there is general agreement that the interface should be integrated with the Ohio Means Jobs website, but not be part of that website.

Chris May asked Michelle if there had been any discussion about OWT's role in promoting the resources. Michelle answered that OLC and OWT have divided the budget directives into several initiatives, and branding and promoting libraries as continuous learning centers is one of those initiatives; she described some of the promotional activites currently under discussion.

Stephen noted that the budget specifically called for more resources in the "Ohio Digital Library" ebook collection, and wondered if the OPLIN purchase of continuous learning resources would satisfy that directive. Beverly Cain pointed out that the budget language in this regard is fairly broad, and that there are not a lot of ebooks available that are pertinent to job skills training.

Susan asked if the branding initiative would also include smaller colleges. Michelle provided some background to the budget language and explained that it only refers to public libraries, so even though public libraries often partner with other institutions, the initiative from OLC and OWT will focus only on libraries.

Justin Bumbico asked about the amount of staff time that might be required. Stephen replied that had not been determined, and depended to some extent on whether the current Ohio Web Library interface was used or a new portal.

Jamie Black asked if the project could be completed by next spring, as planned, and Stephen said he was confident it could be. Beverly noted that this purchase process needs to be separate from the upcoming Ohio Web Library purchase process, since that will not be completed until next July.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Tara Sidwell, aye; and Michael Penrod, aye.

10.2. Approve paying half of DPLA membership fee

Stephen Hedges explained that the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has announced that they will now be charging state hubs a $10,000 annual membership fee. The State Library has committed to paying this fee for the first three years as part of their support for the Ohio Digital Network (ODN), Ohio's DPLA hub. Stephen asked if the OPLIN Board would consider paying half of the annual membership fee this year, as a way to support digitization in public libraries. ODN leadership has discussed the possibility of sending waived invoices for DPLA membership to current institutions contributing content, as a way to remind them that Ohio's DPLA membership fees are being paid at the state level.

Susan Brown motioned to pay half of the annual DPLA membership fee while the State Library pays the other half; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

10.3. Approve active aggressor policy

Stephen Hedges provided copies of an active aggressor response policy that had been developed for OPLIN by Stephanie Herriott. State agencies are now required to have such a policy, and Stephen noted that Stephanie had done a very thorough and complete job of drafting the policy.

Michael Penrod asked about staff training, and Stephen replied that all staff have viewed the required video, but he has not inquired about police training.

Susan Brown motioned to adopt the active aggressor policy as presented; Chris May seconded.

Susan asked if there was any coordinated building-wide plan for dealing with active aggressors, and Stephen replied there was not. Beverly Cain noted that the State Library building also has other tenants, and the Department of Public Safety simply advised them to let the other tenants know about the State Library policy. Jill Billman-Royer suggested that OPLIN provide a copy of this policy to building management.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

10.4. Approve closing OPLIN office at 2:00pm Sept.29

Stephen Hedges asked the Board for permission to close the OPLIN office at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, September 29 for the Director's retirement reception.

Jamie Black motioned to close the OPLIN office at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, September 29; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

11. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges provided an update on the process of purchasing EZproxy, which has now been completed following Controlling Board approval. The software is now in operation. He also provided an update on the Ohio Web Library Invitation to Negotiate project, which is well underway under the guidance of a coordinating committee composed of Mandy Knapp, Amy Pawlowski (OhioLINK) and Erica Clay (INFOhio). The directors of the Libraries Connect Ohio partner organizations have met and established a budget for the acquisition.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted the Kent State iSchool advisory committee meeting, presentations by Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon, Karl Jendretzky's overnight work on the OPLIN network core at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC), and staff visits to Mansfield-Richland County Public Library, Ritter Public Library, and the Columbus Metropolitan Library Northside Branch.

Finally, Stephen thanked the Board for their guidance and support throughout his tenure as OPLIN Director.

11.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that all of the website kits have now been moved to Amazon Web Services (AWS), a project she and Karl Jendretzky undertook to make sure all the kits were running on stable hardware in one place. She has also been recording instructional videos for some website kit features and has been working with kit customers to make sure they have a website privacy policy if they use Google Analytics. The anti-spam software module she had been using for the kits is no longer supported, so she is replacing it with Google's reCAPTCHA service. She is also investigating a module that will display library newsletters to look like flipping pages.

11.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp reported on the progress of the Invitation to Negotiate for the next five-year contract for the Ohio Web Library resources and explained the details of the process. The timeline is very aggressive, to make sure there is enough time for school and academic libraries to purchase additional resources. Mandy presented database usage statistics, which continue to reflect past trends. Finally, she reported that the data for our E-rate reimbursements has been submitted.

11.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky explained that any OPLIN public-facing service is being migrated to Amazon Web Services, alleviating the need for the complex fail-over systems he had devised. Only the servers supporting the listservs and EZproxy will remain at the SOCC, for technical reasons. The EZproxy system was completely reconfigured and the authentication was updated to make it easier for libraries to use OPLIN's EZproxy for authenticating their own resources.

Karl reported that 145 libraries still have active OpenDNS filtering systems. The SMS messaging gateway is sending about 100,000 messages each month to library patrons. A second path from the network core to the internet is in place now, providing redundancy and 20 Gbps of bandwidth. Karl reported on issues encountered in the overnight attempts to bind the two Juniper core routers together and the temporary solutions implemented by Juniper. This will enable many of the new 100 Mbps circuits to connect to the core.

Finally, Karl reported that the co-location space in the SOCC is set up and connectivity work is progressing to the point that we can soon announce the availablity of the co-location data center.

12. CHAIR'S REPORT

In the absence of Joe Greenward, Stephen Hedges reported that he, Joe and Susan Brown had been corresponding about appointing Susan as at-large representative to the OPLIN Board Executive Committee, and that Joe will make that appointment by email to Stephen sometime after today's meeting.

On behalf of the Board, Vice-Chair Michael Penrod thanked Stephen for his service as OPLIN Director. Michelle Francis reminded Board members that Stephen will be awarded the OLC Citizen of the Year Award at the OLC Convention on October 4.

13. ADJOURNMENT

The Vice-Chair adjourned the meeting at 11:42 a.m.