April 9, 2021

Minutes — April 9, 2021

The one hundred eighty-fifth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:02 a.m. on Friday, April 9, 2021 by Board Vice Chair Justin at https://www.gotomeet.me/OPLIN/april-2021-oplin-board-meeting.

Present were Board members: Angela Baldree, Travis Bautz, Jamie Black, Justin Bumbico, Roger Donaldson, Travis McAfee, Hilary Prisbylla, Tara Sidwell, Garalynn Tomas, and Holly Richards. 

Also present were: Jessica Dooley, Rachel Fuller, Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott and Wendy Knapp (State Library); and John Stewart (Serving Every Ohioan [SEO] Service Center).

Jamie Black motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Holly Richards seconded. There was no discussion, so the vice-chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

The Vice-Chair called for public participation.

Wendy Knapp  reported that the Public Library Survey is open. She and Evan Struble are meeting with staff from IMLS and other state librarians and deputies as they plan for funds coming through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Knapp is looking for impactful programs that will reach libraries of all types and their users, and be in direct response to the challenges brought on by the pandemic, leveraging the good work already done by libraries in the areas of workforce development, digital inclusion, and resource sharing. They are also following the developments of the E-rate infusion of $7.1 billion that is part of ARPA, plus the other half a dozen sections that seek to address broadband infrastructure. Knapp is still waiting to learn more about when she will testify before the Senate Finance Committee in the coming weeks.

Roger Donaldson motioned to approve the minutes of the February 12, 2021 meeting as presented; Hilary Prisbylla seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Jamie Pardee was unexpectedly detained out of state, and was unable to provide updated reports. Yarman reported that no unexpected financial activity has occurred since the previous meeting. As previously discussed, it will likely be necessary to ask the Controlling Board for a small increase in spending authority as the internet service bill for the previous fiscal year was not prepared until this fiscal year. Yarman will send the Board a current financial report when Pardee returns to the office.

Copyright release

Laura Solomon has written books for the American Library Association on social media and content marketing. She now has the opportunity to write another book for ALA: advice and commentary drawn partially from the "What Does This Mean to Me, Laura?" blog, the writing of which has been part of Solomon’s job duties at OPLIN. Yarman consulted OPLIN’s representative at the Attorney General's office about securing formal copyright permission for her to reproduce the blog posts. 

Travis McAfee motioned to authorize the director to grant Laura Solomon the requested permission to republish portions of the “What Does This Mean to Me, Laura?” blog in her forthcoming book; Jamie Black seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Strategic Plan extension

Yarman requested, due to the pandemic and the inability for the Board to meet in person for strategic planning purposes, that the current OPLIN Strategic Plan be extended through the next fiscal year.

Jamie Black motioned to extend the expiration of OPLIN’s Strategic Plan to June 30, 2022; Travis Bautz seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Staff raises

Jamie Black motioned to approve the following resolution:

Roger Donaldson seconded the resolution. There was no discussion, so the Vice-chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Angela Baldree, aye; Travis Bautz, aye; Jamie Black, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Roger Donalson, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Hilary Pribylla, aye; Tara Sidwell, aye; Garalyn Tomas, aye; Holly Richards, aye.

Yarman reported that Juniper equipment and software maintenance coverage has been purchased for the remainder of the fiscal year, moving coverage from a calendar year term to fiscal year. Libraries will migrate from Lynda.com to LinkedIn Learning during the first week in May, and work has begun configuring library access to LinkedIn Learning. Executive Staff Director Rebekah Michael of the Ohio Cyber Range Institute (OCRI) reached out to OPLIN to help them connect with public libraries as an outlet for their IT and cybersecurity training. Jessica Dooley invited selected libraries to a webinar for a fruitful discussion about what OCRI could do to help libraries add cyber range curriculum to their program offerings. Library staff requested that OCRI provide a train-the-trainer webinar to familiarize library staff with OCR resources. OPLIN hopes to invite libraries to access OCRI's curricula within the next few months.

Yarman reported that Rachel Fuller has nearly completed her MLIS internship. Fuller discussed her study exploring the reasons why some libraries have very low database usage, finding that libraries with low usage often lack a website or prominent links to Ohio Web Library resources.

Solomon reported progress on Drupal 9 migrations: 14 library websites were upgraded prior to the Board meeting. She anticipates, at this rate, all migrations will be completed by early summer. Solomon is in discussions or actively developing 7 new Website Kits for libraries.

Network Events

• The J. R. Clarke Library in Covington has moved to a temporary location during renovations. Jendretzky created a VPN router configuration template to tunnel the library's business class cable circuit back into the OPLIN network. It’s been running stable for almost a month.
• A card failed at the SOCC Sunday, March 7, knocking out seven physical links, but due to network redundancy affected only Spectrum circuits. Jendretzky replaced the card (a 10 port loaner from Juniper) with a spare, and repaired a fiber path with low-light levels which was the cause of the Spectrum outage. 
• Juniper Maintenance up and running as of April 2nd. After OIT gathers packing materials and a bad power supply, Jendretzky will ship to Juniper a few bad devices for replacement.

Orders

• The E-rate process resulted in 92 orders: 70 circuit renewals, 21 fresh builds

VLAN Stacking

• To avoid visiting 99 library sites to make circuit changes required for VLAN stacking, Spectrum will build a new 20GB OPLIN/Spectrum next-generation head-end. The first pilot circuits on the new link will be the OPLIN office and Cincinnati, who requested the layer 2 functionality for equipment they plan to put in the SOCC. The 13 new Spectrum circuits coming up in July will also have the new configuration and use the new head.
• Cuyahoga County also wants a layer 2 connection to a rack they wish to install at the SOCC, and Jendretzky will use the Spectrum template to establish a similar head end with OARnet.

Coding

• Jendretzky built a tool for mass management of ssh devices. He was able to use this to make changes on 225 routers (enabling SNMPV3) on March 24 in a little over a minute.
• Jendretzky added tester code to the MASK authentication system, which lets other staff add and change library configuration in the system. He also created Debug code for troubleshooting connections with local systems. In addition to standard SIP2 and API authentication protocols, Jendretzky trained MASK to authenticate against particular library patron login pages where standard protocols are not available.
• The once.oplin.org secure messaging platform now includes a CAPTCHA test to block bots.
• A library deliberately sent 17,000 SMS messages to their patrons in March. Jendretzky increased the gateway to 20 parallel handlers, sending text messages at 2 per second. With additional server resources that could double if the Trumpia service allows.

Servers

• Jendretzky has been documenting the various OPLIN server functions for Jessica Dooley, who then builds a fresh server and migrates services to the new platform. Network monitoring tools were first; SMS Gateway, Stats, and soon MASK will migrate.

With no other business pending, the Vice-chair adjourned the meeting at 11:07 a.m.