August 11, 2023

Minutes —August 11, 2023

The one hundred ninety-sixth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:02 a.m. on Friday, August 11, 2023 by Board Vice Chair Garalynn Tomas at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

 Present were Board members: Ben Bolbach, Michael Butler, Roger Donaldson, Bill Lane, Jennifer Reynard, Holly Richards, Sue Schuld, CJ Stephens, and Meredith Wickham.

 Also present were: Jessica Dooley, Christine Morris, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott, Wendy Knapp, and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council). 

Attending virtually: Laura Solomon (OPLIN).

Sue Schuld nominated the following slate of of icers: Garylynn Tomas, Chair; Roger Donadlson, Vice Chair; Ben Bolbach, Secretary; Meredith Wickham, Treasurer. Michael Butler seconded the nominations. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the nominations; all aye. Garalyn Tomas continued to run the meeting as newly elected Chair.

Following the pattern of holding OPLIN Board meetings at 10:00 a.m. on the second Friday of even-numbered months, Yarman presented the following meeting schedule:

• October 13, 2023
• December 8, 2023
• February 9, 2024
• April 12, 2024
• June 14, 2024

Holly Richards asked whether the October 13 meeting could be moved forward to be held during the OLC Convention in Cincinnati, September 29. Yarman said he spoke to Paula Brehm-Heeger, director of the Cincinnati library, and she has reserved their boardroom for our use. Yarman also mentioned that the state rules allow those members who live more than three hours from Cincinnati to be reimbursed $151, the per diem set by the state for Cincinnati, for hotel expenses. After a discussion of what OLC events a planned Board meeting may conflict with, Meredith Wickham asked if we should check whether there likely would be a quorum of Board members planning to attend the conference; six members indicated they would be there.

Ben Bolbach moved to approve the meeting schedule with the change to move the October meeting to September 29 at the Cincinnati Main Library; Meredith Wickham seconded. There was no further discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

The Chair called for public participation.

Wendy Knapp reported that Heather Miller has joined the staff at SEO. The State Library partnered with the Ohio National Guard to create a “Freedom to Serve” display for the state house, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the desegregation of the armed services. The State Library Board awarded Guiding Ohio Online grants in May. The current ILEAD cohort will hold their final session in October by presenting their projects to the State Library Board. The State Library has four kits with eclipse programming ideas; contact Penelope Shumaker for more information. Year to date, there have been over five million checkouts from the Ohio Digital Library. OhioLINK has announced that they will be migrating to a new Library Services Platform, Alma Prima, in 2025. Summer Reading Program evaluations are due September 9. A new State Library website will debut on the new Innovate Ohio platform in mid-September. The State Library building is undergoing upgrades in security and HVAC systems.

Michelle Francis reported that the Public Library Fund increase to 1.7% of general revenue is now in permanent law, as established in the state’s new budget. The budget also included last minute tax changes; OLC staff will be meeting with the Department of Taxation to determine how those will affect PLF calculations. Major events coming soon include the Ohio Library Convention and Expo in Cincinnati, and Fiscal Officer training.

Roger Donaldson moved to approve the minutes of the April 14, 2023 meeting as presented; Holly Richards seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Jamie Pardee distributed a corrected paper copy of the cash balance sheet, showing the balance at $1.3 million at the end of the fiscal year. She estimates the cash balance at the end of FY24 will be around $820,000. E-rate reimbursements are estimated at $1.7 million. Total disbursements for FY23 were $5.7 million. Pardee likes to estimate expenditures a little high, so the projection for FY24 is just under $5.9 million. 

Bill Lane moved to accept the financial reports; Ben Bolbach seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Webkit Fees

Library fees for the Website Kits are intended to cover OPLIN’s actual costs to build and maintain them. The fees for website creation, installation of additional modules, and custom website design have not changed since the service was implemented, whereas Laura Solomon’s salary has risen 30% in that time. In FY2019, the OPLIN Board raised the annual hosting/maintenance from $340 to $360. Since then, the Consumer Price Index has gone up 21%. Based on discussions with staff about the work creating and maintaining webkits, the following new fee structure is proposed:

If approved, these new rates will become effective July 1, 2024 for existing customers; any new customers will be charged the increased rate. 

Roger Donaldson moved to approve the new fee structure; Sue Schuld seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Staff Raises

Stephanie Herriot gave an overview of how raises are determined for state employees, explaining that because OPLIN are “administrative” staff, the Board must approve their raises. These are parity raises in line with the raises negotiated by the state’s bargaining units. 

Bill Lane moved: In that ef ective the pay period that includes July 1, 2023, exempt employees paid according to the E-1 salary tables in the Ohio Revised Code 124.152 will receive a 3% increase and the FY24 3% salary increase is also allowable for exempt employees in the E-2, E-3 and E-4 salary tables, the OPLIN Board, in accordance with the duties assigned by Ohio Revised Code Section 3375.66, approves adjusting the compensation of each OPLIN E-3 staf member to reflect an approximate 3% salary increase retroactively beginning with the pay period that includes July 1, 2023; Ben Bolbach seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

OPLIN Director's Report

 Yarman said the agency had a relatively easy rollover to the new fiscal year: Cisco Umbrella renewed smoothly without the hiccups of the previous summer, and the new circuits ordered as part of the E-rate process mostly seem to be functioning without lingering installation problems. Yarman also discussed a meeting with Cuyahoga County Public Library about options for working with PCs for People to provide internet access wirelessly to digitally distressed neighborhoods around library branches. Libraries can do this, but if that internet traffic travels on OPLIN-paid circuits, libraries would have to take over payment of that bill. What we’re seeing instead, in the case of the Lorain Public Library System for example, is to pay for a separate circuit to handle that traffic. The “To and Through” approach to broadband deployment via community anchor institutions is growing in Ohio, and Yarman expects to have many more conversations with libraries who have been approached by partners to launch similar projects. Dooley added that PCs for People is a non-profit WISP (wireless internet service provider) which charges customers $15 per month for service. PCs for People does have funding from BroadbandOhio to pay for the internet backhaul via OARnet, so in these cases they are searching for ways to get from their equipment at library facilities back to the OARnet pop.

Technology Projects Manager’s Report 

Dooley reported that OPLIN’s circuit upgrades are almost all complete, with only two awaiting installation, and credits this to early orders. Of the libraries that ordered new branch circuits via OPLIN’s statewide omnibus effort, only seven remain to be filled. Ten libraries took the option to connect branches directly to the OPLIN core, and as those are complete, they receive OPLIN-managed routers. One of those libraries, Ashtabula, requested Q-in-Q configuration to bring their two locations into a single network; prior to now, we’ve only used Q-in-Q for libraries to include equipment in the SOCC co-location space within the libraries’ local networks. Dooley worked with OIT engineer Mike Horsely to inventory OPLIN’s fiber trunks within the SOCC in preparation for future expansion. The state has deployed cloud-hosted authoritative domain name servers, and Dooley has pointed all library domain that use the state’s name servers (including all lib.oh.us domains) to the cloud option. This prevents loss of service to those libraries when the state’s physical name servers suffer any network incident. Dooley reported that Derek Zoladz has been working hard to support the changes in subscription database access, and he developed MASK authentication support for the Koha API.

Digital Resources Manager’s Report

Morris outlined problems with the implementation of changes to the statewide collection of databases. Libraries who chose to pick up Transparent Language subscriptions after they were removed from the statewide contracts discovered that the company would not migrate user accounts and histories. Proquest, despite having all necessary subscription information when the contracts were signed in the spring, did not have all library access set up for Culturegrams, and Morris worked over the holiday weekend to manually input library IP addresses. Morris will be developing special E-rate training targeted to libraries who use commercially-available cable internet for their branches. At OLC, OPLIN staff will be talking up Northstar to encourage more libraries to offer it to their communities; currently about 100 libraries are live, serving around 8 million Ohioans in their communities. Morris will also present a poster session that promotes to libraries the resources that INFOhio makes available to schools.

Library Services Manager’s Report

Solomon expanded on the information in her written report about her work preparing for the Drupal 9 end-of-life deadline coming up in November. Solomon and Dooley have successfully upgraded a website to Drupal 10 in the test environment, but are not yet ready to begin upgrading the live websites.

Recognition 

The Chair recognized Roger Donaldson to offer the following resolution: 

WHEREAS TARA SIDWELL has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since July 2017; 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 six years; and

WHEREAS her experience as director at the Kate Love Simpson-Morgan County Library gave her a distinctive outlook on OPLIN and its services to libraries; and

WHEREAS she has provided additional leadership as the Treasurer of the OPLIN Board from 2019 through 2021, the Vice Chair from 2021 through 2022, and Chair from 2022 through 2023 ; and

WHEREAS she has consistently contributed her valuable opinions to the OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations; and

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

 NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that, on the 11th day of August, Two Thousand and Twenty-Three, 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 TARA SIDWELL 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 TARA SIDWELL for her continued volunteer service as a member of this Board. 

Ben Bolbach seconded the resolution. All aye. 

Roger Donaldson offered the following resolution: 

WHEREAS JAMES BLACK II has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since July 2017; and

WHEREAS he has freely and unselfishly given of his time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for six years; and

WHEREAS his service as trustee at the Loudonville Public Library gave him a distinctive outlook on OPLIN and its services to libraries; and

WHEREAS he has provided additional service as the Treasurer of the OPLIN Board from 2021 through 2023; and

WHEREAS his focus and probing attention to detail have often proved beneficial; and WHEREAS he has consistently contributed his productive opinions to the OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations; and

WHEREAS he has been a steadfast guardian of OPLIN’s interests throughout his tenure on the Board, 

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that, on the 11th day of August, Two Thousand and Twenty-Three, 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 JAMES BLACK II during his 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 JAMES BLACK II for his vital volunteer service as a member of this Board. 

Michael Butler seconded the resolution. All aye.

Nomination Committee Appointments

The Chair appointed Ben Bolbach, Bill Lane, Michael Michael Butler, and Roger Donaldson to the nominations committee.

With no other business pending, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 10:48 a.m.