December 14, 2007 Minutes

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

Minutes -- December 14, 2007

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred 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 14, 2007 by Board Chair Gayle Patton at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Bonnie Mathies, Bob Richmond, Gayle Patton, Laura Solomon, Jeff Wale, Karl Colon, Gary Branson, and Terry Casey. Michael Wantz arrived at 10:08 a.m.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges (OPLIN), Joel Husenits (OPLIN), Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN), Laura Watkins (OPLIN), Jo Budler (State Library), Diane Fink (State Library), Jeff Jones (State Library), and Carol Verny (OHIONET).

Gayle Patton introduced Jeff Jones, Head of Employee Services for the State Library, who will conduct a mandatory, two-hour ethics training at the end of the Board meeting.

2. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation, and there was none.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Terry Casey motioned to approve the agenda, Bob Richmond seconded. All aye.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 12th meeting

Terry Casey motioned to approve the minutes from the October 12th meeting, Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCE REPORT

Diane Fink gave a detailed finance report, which was up-to-date as of November 30th.

Report A covered budget and expenditures for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006-2007. As of November 30, those two FYs are technically closed. During FY 2007, OPLIN gave out filtering grants, but it was discovered after the FY had closed that one library had not spent the grant money. That library had to return those funds, which were deposited in the state's general revenue fund. Everything else has been paid off.

Report B covered budget and expenditures for FY 2008. The first quarter of payroll has been posted through the OAKS system, as of the end of September, and the majority of money has been paid to library database vendors. The contract with NetWellness is in place, and is structured so that future payments will not be released until NetWellness gives a financial report to Stephen Hedges. This is a typical practice for other grants that OPLIN or the State Library give.

Contracts for the Kent State usability testing, the IndexData seatch tool, and Ohio Web Library design work are not specifically reflected yet, but will be as soon as OPLIN receives signed contracts from them.

Report C covered revenue and cash balance for FY 2007-2008. The majority of all E-Rate refunds have been received during this FY, and were deposited in OPLIN's Fund 4S4. OPLIN is waiting on a small amount of E-Rate monies yet.

The State Library has a new budget analyst at the Office of Budget and Management, as the previous one has now been assigned to the OAKS project.

Michael Wantz arrived at 10:08 a.m.

Diane reported that six filtering grant contracts with libraries have not been signed yet, and OPLIN is following up with those. The State Library received instructions for the next capital budget request, which is due January 28.

FY 2008 does not look very good from a statewide fiscal standpoint. The Governor has requested OBM to look at various scenarios, and nobody knows what the future holds.

Stephen Hedges mentioned that OPLIN's capital budget request would constitute 50% of the router replacement fund, with the other 50% coming from E-Rate money. The budget request will go in as a State Library request, and OPLIN is expected be the only project in that request.

Stephen Hedges gave a short update on the ScanPath usability testing recently conducted at Kent State. He and Laura Watkins attended on the first day, and Joel Husenits on the second. To get a more diverse mix of testers, KSU plans to test an additional half dozen or so people at no cost to OPLIN. OPLIN will receive a hard disk of each testing session for us to keep. Two interfaces were tested: the MasterKey demo, and our Ohio Web Library/Google CSE demo. The results were pretty much as expected; people expected Google's interface, and anything other than that did not test as well. People generally thought MasterKey was more trustworthy, but they were also accustomed to looking at the URL of a search result in order to judge its trustworthiness.

There was a general discussion about search engines and audiences, the differences between the Google CSE and IndexData products, their interfaces, etc. Karl Jendretzky explained how IndexData works.

Terry Casey motioned to approve the Finance Report, Laura Solomon seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Internet Filtering Assistance grants

Stephen Hedges noted that the Alexandria and Perry Public Libraries need to be added. He used the same criteria that was applied to the other grants previously awarded.

Gary Branson motioned to approve the two grants, per the Executive Director's recommendations. Karl Colon seconded.

Roll call: Bonnie Mathies, aye; Terry Casey, aye; Gayle Patton, aye; Laura Solomon, aye; Bob Richmond, aye; Jeff Wale, aye; Karl Colon, aye; Gary Branson, aye; and Michael Wantz, aye.

6.2. Report on Focus Groups

Stephen Hedges reviewed the document he and Laura Watkins produced as a follow-up to the five focus groups on OPLIN, recently conducted around the state. Stephen wants to post it on the website for public viewing as well. The five groups were surprisingly unanimous in how they use OPLIN, as well as their technology challenges. There were minor differences from group to group; for example, rural broadband was a concern in the southeast, and the northwest group was concerned about their web hosting situations with NORWELD. The major concerns were how to compete with Google, how to get the databases out to the public and to make them more aware. Bandwidth was also a concern. All of the libraries were concerned with increasing their public computing, particularly providing more computers and being better able to handle technical questions from the public. Making the databases more user-friendly was also mentioned, but there was almost no pressure to acquire more databases than we already provide.

Stephen's first reaction was that OPLIN was already focused on the right things. Upon further consideration, however, there are things which he recommends OPLIN could do. He wants to discuss most of these suggestions further in February and at the Board retreat, because they would drive a new set of goals and objectives.

6.2.1 Approval of Executive Director's second recommendation

Stephen Hedges requested that the Board act immediately on his second recommendation -- to automatically upgrade the connection of every library whose average circuit utilization is over 80% during peak afternoon hours -- because it affects E-Rate applications for several libraries. The OPLIN Board will not meet again until the day after E-Rate Form 471 is due. This change would affect about twenty libraries. Stephen recommended that OPLIN replace the formula for bandwidth allocation, which is currently based on the number of library workstations, with this new method. The last OPLIN Connectivity Survey showed that more libraries are offering wireless Internet access, which does not count towards their bandwidth allocation under the current formula.

Terry Casey made a motion to authorize the Executive Director to provide additional bandwidth to libraries, based on the new criteria recommended by the director. Michael Wantz seconded.

Stephen Hedges noted that for most of the libraries in this group, OPLIN is already working on upgrading their connections, because they qualified based on the old criteria too. There are a few mid-size, but mostly smaller-to-mid-size libraries.

Jeff Wale cautioned that local library policies will definitely impact the usage number, because some allow patrons to do things that others do not. There was general discussion about gaming in libraries and its affect on bandwidth.

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board about the reason for the focus groups, namely to prioritize the spending of OPLIN's E-Rate money. He clearly heard that libraries want more bandwidth.

Roll call: Bonnie Mathies, aye; Terry Casey, aye; Gayle Patton, aye; Laura Solomon, aye; Bob Richmond, aye; Jeff Wale, aye; Karl Colon, aye; Gary Branson, aye; and Michael Wantz, aye.

6.3. Ohio Web Library page testing and development

Stephen Hedges referred to the earlier discussion of the testing. As for the page development, OPLIN received quotes from some State Term Schedule vendors, who are accustomed to doing larger-scale projects and were not interested in this small project. However, that process led OPLIN to 361 Studios, the subcontractor that is responsible for the State of Ohio's main website, as well as other impressive web development work. They will perform the work under a "time and materials" contract at a rate of $100/hour, with a maximum cost of $5,000 for initial development and later editing.

In response to a question, Stephen spoke more about the focus groups. The groups consisted mostly of reference librarians and staff who deal with the public everyday. It was mostly people with whom OPLIN has only infrequent contact, people teaching the public how to use the databases, etc.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Split cost of Ethernet circuit

Stephen Hedges introduced a proposal that would allow a library to purchase a larger circuit with assistance from OPLIN. OPLIN wants to provide an option for a library wants a larger circuit than the OPLIN-provided circuit. Under this option, they can still purchase a 10Mbps Ethernet circuit, and OPLIN will cover the Office of Information Technology (OIT) bill covering maintenance, etc. This is a better option for libraries than adding a second T1 circuit, but would be a change from the current policy, which is that OPLIN provides the connection, not financial assistance towards a connection. Stephen would like to modify the policy with new language that would enable this second option.

Stephen explained the E-Rate implications of this new option. Dan Farslow advised OPLIN to be sure that there are two distinct bills, and that there would never be a situation in which the library is paying OPLIN directly for anything. In this new option there would be one bill from OIT and one from the telecommunications company, thus creating no E-Rate problems.

Jeff Wale noted that T1s are dying, so this issue should die as well, as more libraries move to Ethernet. Karl Jendretzky pointed out that not every library can currently get Ethernet. He further explained how the billing would break down, and the benefits for OPLIN and the library. OPLIN would receive the OIT bill, and the library would receive the telecommunications bill, which should be roughly equal. It is a clean split, and the library will get more bandwidth.

Stephen Hedges noted that two libraries are currently interested in this option. The other benefit of this arrangement is that OPLIN can simply take over the future telecommunications bills if a library later qualifies for more bandwidth under OPLIN's allocation formula.

Karl Colon made a motion that OPLIN provide significant financial support toward the purchase of an additional broadband telecommunication connection for libraries that wish to do so. The amount of support provided under this section shall be determined under procedures to be established by the Executive Director and reviewed annually by the Board of Trustees. Jeff Wale seconded.

Roll call: Bonnie Mathies, aye; Terry Casey, aye; Gayle Patton, aye; Laura Solomon, aye; Bob Richmond, aye; Jeff Wale, aye; Karl Colon, aye; Gary Branson, aye; and Michael Wantz, aye.

7.2. Accept resignation of Joel Husenits

Joel Husenits informed the Board that he has accepted a new position at Columbus State Community College, which begins on January 2, 2008. He will be working on the Ohio College Access Portal (OhioCAP).

Gary Branson motioned to accept the resignation of Joel Husenits, and to accept Laura Watkins as his replacement. Karl Colon seconded. All aye.

On behalf of the Board, Gayle Patton expressed her thanks to Joel and appreciation for his six and a half years of service to OPLIN.

8. OPLIN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges noted that Senate Bill 185, which places OPLIN into permanent law, had passed the Senate on December 11th by a 32-0 vote. The bill now goes on to the House.

8.1. Databases and Network Reports

8.4.1. Database usage

Laura Watkins reported that database searches are down, but documents retrieved are up, which could indicate that people are finding what they need and do not have to do as many searches. The ITN (Invitation to Negotiate) was sent out on November 29th to an extensive list of database vendors.

9.4.2. Support Center (October and November)

Karl Jendretzky reported that there have been slightly more database problems than usual. CLEVNET has been moving their IP addresses. Otherwise, things are normal.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

Gayle Patton gave an update on Jim Kenzig, and wished everyone a wonderful holiday season.

10. ADJOURNMENT

Bob Richmond motioned to adjourn the meeting at 10:52 a.m.

 

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Bonnie Mathies, Secretary

 

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