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

Minutes — August 10, 2012

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-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 10, 2012 by Board Vice-Chair Jamie Mason at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Gary Branson, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen Davis, Jamie Mason, and Sandi Plymire.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); and Jamie Pardee and David Namiotka (State Library).

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Jamie Mason reminded the Board of the suggested slate of officers proposed by the Executive Committee at the last meeting, but also noted that due to a subsequent change in employment status, Jason Buydos was not eligible to serve on the Board at this time. Jamie called for nominations from the floor for Vice-Chair. Gary Branson nominated Karen Davis, making the suggested slate of officers: Jamie Mason, Chair; Karen Davis, Vice-Chair; Karl Colón, Secretary; and Gary Branson, Treasurer.

Don Barlow motioned to close the nominations; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

Jamie Mason called for approval of the slate of officers. All aye.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Karen Davis motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

4. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY 2013

Jamie Mason called attention to the proposed Board meeting schedule, which in accordance with past practice set meeting dates as the second Friday of even-numbered months and extended beyond the end of fiscal year 2013 to October 2013, to allow Board members to plan ahead.

Stephen Hedges pointed out that the proposed October 11,2013 date fell on the last day of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Convention at Kalahari Resort in Sandusky. The consensus of the Board was to keep that meeting date and move the meeting to Sandusky.

Sandi Plymire motioned to approve the proposed Board meeting schedule; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Jamie Mason called for public participation; there was none.

6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 8 meeting

Jamie Mason requested approval of the minutes of the June 8 Board meeting.

Gary Branson explained that on further reflection, he felt he should have abstained from the vote on the website kit pricing. After discussion, the Board noted that changing this one vote would not affect the outcome of the decision.

Karl Colón motioned to approve the minutes of the June 8 meeting as amended; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

7. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of July 31. Report A detailed fiscal years 2010 and 2011, which are now closed and unchanged. In Report B, FY 2012 is also closed; any future changes will be reflected in FY 2013. Report C showed a June 30, 2012 cash balance of $2.7 million.

Jamie then provided an overview of the FY 2014-2015 budget request process, which has started. Agencies drawing funds from the General Revenue Fund (GRF) have been instructed to request 90% of the FY 2013 funding, agencies drawing funds from other sources may request 100%. In both cases, agencies may also submit justified requests for an additional 10%.

Stephen Hedges reported that in drafting the OPLIN request and answering the required questions from the Office of Budget and Management (OBM), he has placed a lot of emphasis on the Board's desire for OPLIN funding to return to the GRF. In budget planning meetings, he had even proposed at one point to prepare a 90% "GRF" budget. Subsequent feedback that Jamie has received from OBM has indicated, however, that they will not move OPLIN funding from the Public Library Fund (PLF) to the GRF. Since it now appears that a change in OPLIN funding would have to be done through the legislature, Stephen and Jamie will submit a 100% budget request to OBM.

Stephen also asked the Board if they wanted to request cost-of-living salary increases for OPLIN staff. The last time OPLIN salaries were increased was August 2008, and Stephen reported that between then and June 2012 the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 4.7%. The Board discussion established that they were concerned about OPLIN staff leaving for jobs that provided better compensation. Jamie Pardee assured the Board that sufficient funds are available, since staff salaries are such a small percentage of the total OPLIN budget.

Karl Colón motioned to request 4% increases in all OPLIN staff salaries in the next fiscal year; Ben Chinni seconded.

In further discussion, Don Barlow made the point that the Board had CPI data to support a request for 4.7% salary increases to counteract the effect of increased living costs. Jamie Mason asked if there was any objection to adopting this amendment to the original motion and there was none.

The motion as now amended: to request 4.7% increases in all OPLIN staff salaries in the next fiscal year.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

Karen Davis motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

8. OLD BUSINESS

8.1. Resume discussion of Extending OPLIN policy

Stephen Hedges presented the two draft policies regarding extending an OPLIN Internet connection to non-library entities that were tabled from the last meeting. These drafts described two different ways of charging a library for extra connection costs involved if the library wanted to share its OPLIN connection. Stephen also added a new, third version which essentially only changed references to "public libraries" to "OPLIN participants" and cleaned up some minor language.

The Board speculated extensively on various reasons for a library to share their OPLIN connection and legal issues that might be raised. While the Board was generally sympathetic to the possibility of libraries sharing their connection, they were concerned about the complexities of detecting, measuring, and invoicing extra connection costs, and the likelihood that not many libraries would have a desire to share their connection.

Gary Branson motioned to approve the third version; Karl Colón seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

9. NEW BUSINESS

9.1. 10 Gbps card for Juniper core router

Stephen Hedges explained that the OPLIN core router at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) uses a complex system of combined port channels to connect to the state's "edge" router that passes all state government traffic to the Internet. This amalgamated connection can supposedly carry 4 Gbps, but Karl Jendretzky and Terry Fouts (Office of Information Technology) have never been able to verify that, and the usage charts seem to indicate that this connection might only be able to handle about 2 Gbps. The surer way to make this connection is with a network card, and the appropriate size would be 10 Gbps. Installation of such a card would remove the weakest link remaining in our network. From the quotes OPLIN has received to date, the cost would be about $55,000.

Karl Jendretzky noted that this is both the most complicated and the most important connection in the entire network, and that he was concerned by his inability to adequately test it. Karl Colón asked if OPLIN should install an even bigger card, but Karl Jendretzky cautioned that the cost would be very prohibitive, and the current SOCC edge router could not handle the bigger connection anyway.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the purchase of a 10 Gbps card for the core router; Sandi Plymire seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

10. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on various meetings with Lynda Murray (OLC), John Conley and Gwen Evans (OH-TECH), and John Magill (OhioLINK) regarding the expansion of the Cincinnati library digitization project. An OhioLINK committee is working on switching the Digital Resource Commons to a new platform, so this was an opportune time to talk, but the fact that OPLIN is funded from the PLF is complicating this possible collaboration. Since feedback from OBM indicates that the Governor's budget will not move OPLIN funding back into the GRF, Lynda and Stephen are planning to start meeting with legislative leaders to make the change in the legislative budget. Stephen also reported that he and Karl Jendretzky had met with consultants hired by the Governor's office to do an inventory of all state agency networks to see if there are opportunities for consolidation and increased efficiency.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted onsite network activity by Karl Jendretzky at Mansfield and Cleveland public libraries, Laura Solomon's presentations for OLC and NEO-RLS, and his attendance at the reception for Bob Carterette's retirement from CLEVNET.

10.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that only about 30 of the new Juniper routers remain to be installed. He also reported that the SMS service is now sending about 250,000 text messages a year for 78 libraries. Karl noted that OPLIN is testing a standard business cable connection at the Southwest Ohio and Neighboring Libraries office, which has had to move twice in a short period of time. If the networking issues can be worked out, this might be an alternative connection type for small libraries currently using T1 connections. Karl is working with SEO Libraries in Caldwell to tune the Quality of Service settings on the network for their new library circulation software. Finally, Karl noted that Columbus Metro Library has qualified for the first upgrade to a full 1 Gbps connection.

10.2. Library Services Manager report

In the absence of Laura Solomon, Stephen Hedges reported that he and Laura had discussed the timing of major upgrades to the Drupal software running the website kits. The problem is that many independent software modules that are used in the kits are not upgraded until many months after the core Drupal software has been upgraded. The solution will be to remain on an older version of Drupal rather than the newest version; for example, the kits will continue to use Drupal version 6 until version 8 has been released, at which time they will be upgraded to version 7. Stephen also reported that he and Laura will be working with Lynda Murray to add a technology section to the OLC Administrator's Handbook.

10.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that the database statistics now include one full year of Mango Languages and Ancestry Library Edition, making year-to-year comparisons more meaningful. He also reported that the Libraries Connect Ohio partners have discussed how to count statistics for some of the databases that do not involve traditional searches and documents retrieval, and as a result of those discussions one small change has been made in the way Mango statistics are calculated starting this fiscal year.

11. CHAIR'S REPORT

11.1. At-large appointment to Executive Committee

Jamie Mason appointed Jeff Wale to the at-large position on the Executive Committee.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Sandi Plymire the Board adjourned at 11:36 a.m.