February 10, 2012 Minutes

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

Minutes — February 10, 2012

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirtieth meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 10, 2012 by Board Vice-Chair Jamie Mason at the
State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Gary
Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Jamie
Mason, Sandi Plymire, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN);
Beverly Cain, Jamie Pardee, and David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the
agenda as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Jamie Mason asked all attendees to introduce themselves to Jamie Pardee, the new Head of Fiscal Services at the State Library.

Beverly Cain described the five-year evaluation of the State Library's
management of federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds
recently completed by Pelz Library Group, which was generally
favorable. This will become the foundation of a new LSTA five-year plan,
which is due for submission to the Institute of Museum and Library
Services (IMLS) in June. Some LSTA funds support the purchase of
databases by Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO), and the evaluation contained
some good data about libraries' use of, and need for, those databases.

David Namiotka provided an update on the RFP process for choosing a
new statewide delivery contractor, after Pitt Ohio opted out of their
contract. The proposals are due at the Department of Administrative
Services (DAS) on February 15. They hope to have the contract awarded
by February 24, and transition from the current service to the new
service in early March. There may be a day or two of no deliveries to
clear all materials from the current system. Monies paid by libraries
for Pitt Ohio service are held by the State Library and will be applied
to the new contract.

Doug Evans reported that the omnibus bill of library issues is
scheduled to be introduced in the very near future. The Ohio Library
Council (OLC) is monitoring release of information from the Governor's
Office regarding the Shared Services Report and the Mid-Budget Review.
Doug noted the Governor's announcement of an upgrade to state broadband
in his State of the State Address, which interests OLC. Finally, Doug
thanked the Board for Laura Solomon's webinar presentation the day
before on ADA issues for library websites; the webinar had over 75
participants. (Stephen Hedges noted that Laura had a high fever during
the webinar and was too ill today to attend the Board meeting.)

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December
9 meeting

Jamie Mason requested approval of the minutes of the December 9
Board meeting.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the
minutes of the December 9 meeting as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.
All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of January 31,
2012. Report A covered fiscal years 2010 and 2011, both of which have
now been closed. In Report B for FY2012, Jamie pointed out that the
amount disbursed in the form of filtering grants plus the amount
disbursed to OpenDNS for the first six months of statewide filtering
fell short of the $81,000 earmark by $717.33, so a line was added to
the budget documents noting that this amount will be applied to the
costs associated with the OPLIN Director's coordination of the
filtering grants. Stephen Hedges informed the Board that the amount
distributed in grants was less than what the Board had authorized
because three grantees decided to use the statewide OpenDNS instead of
a local filter.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the
Financial Reports; Ben Chinni seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve revisions to Policy on the Provision of Network Services by OPLIN to Public Libraries

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that there was discussion at the
last meeting about revising the current OPLIN Policy on the Provision of Network Services,
since as written it would preclude the possibility of providing more than one
connection to a library system. The issue was ultimately tabled so the
Executive Committee could work with Stephen on further edits to the policy.

Stephen presented the proposed edits developed in conjunction with the Executive
Committee. These edits simplify the policy greatly, by adding some language
at the beginning of the policy which repeats the Ohio Revised Code description
of OPLIN's purpose, and by removing much of the language describing the
connections provided to libraries, since that can be determined by the Board
within the regularly-reviewed Strategic Plan or other Board actions.

Jason Buydos asked if the Governor's recent announcement of upgrades to the
OARnet system would impact this policy, and Stephen replied that the upgrades would
not have any direct effect on the OPLIN network.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the policy as revised; Don Barlow seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni,
aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

6.2. Discuss 2012 Stakeholders Meeting

At the last Board meeting, Stephen Hedges had asked if the Board wanted to
continue holding annual Stakeholders Meetings, and the consensus was that
these were valuable meetings, especially if they could be held online.
Stephen provided some details about costs for the 2012 Stakeholders Meeting,
which would normally be held in September in conjunction with the OLC Expo. Room
setup and Internet costs for a meeting held both in-person and online would
be about $2,000, not including any software costs. Stephen reported that he
had been unable to find any cost-effective single-use webinar software options,
but had talked with eTech and OLC about the possibility of using software
they have licensed. Doug Evans reported that OLC was examining their license,
but thought content broadcast from the OLC Expo should be permissible.

Becky Schultz asked about attendance at in-person Stakeholders Meetings,
and Stephen reported that those held at OLC Expos general drew about 50 attendees,
while those held at OLC Conventions drew much fewer. Jill Billman-Royer asked if
online attendees would have an opportunity to interact with presenters, and Stephen
replied that most webinar software allowed interaction through a chat room. Doug
also noted that the online broadcast could be archived.

The consensus of the Board was to proceed with both an in-person and an online
Stakeholders Meeting at the 2012 OLC Expo.

6.3. Discuss managed wireless service

Stephen Hedges presented information following up on the previous Board
discussion about implementing a new service that would manage wireless
Internet access points that would be installed in libraries, owned,
and managed by an outside contractor through controlling
hardware at the OPLIN core; libraries would then be charged a
monthly fee per access point for managing wireless Internet
connectivity. At last month's meeting, the Board had asked Stephen to
survey libraries and determine interest in such a service.

Stephen reported that he had not done the survey, because in determining
potential cost to the library of such a service, it became apparent that
OPLIN would need to charge a fairly steep fee per access point to break
even. Stephen explained his methodology for determining the necessary fee,
and noted that he did not want to release this information to the library
community in the form of a survey if the Board felt the fee was too high.
Stephen also noted that CLEVNET already provides this type of service to
their members, and requested that the survey be withheld from their area.

Don Barlow felt that a survey was still valuable in order to gauge interest. Jason Buydos questioned what would happen to wireless access points if the contractor withdrew from the service. Stephen felt that such considerations could be included in an RFP, if there is sufficient interest to proceed, or even in contract negotiations. Jason added another consideration regarding how much control of library switches the contractor would need.

The consensus of the Board was that a survey worded in such a way that it did not raise the expectation that OPLIN would provide managed wireless service could gather valuable data. Stephen will share the draft of the survey text with the Board before he releases it.

6.4. Approve contracts with Time Warner Cable, IFN, and Horizon Telecomm

The final item of business pending from the last Board meeting dealt with quotes from several
telecommunications companies for Ethernet connections to libraries that
are currently served by T1 lines, but for which the Office of Information Technology (OIT) has not completed and/or begun negotiations for Ethernet services. OPLIN has the legal authority
to negotiate telecommunications contracts beyond those negotiated by
OIT, but has never yet done so. The Board had asked Stephen Hedges to provide more details about pricing and services, and also that he have the Attorney General's office review proposed contract language.

Stephen reported that he worked extensively with the Attorney General's office to develop language that could be added to any standard telecommunications contract to make it acceptable to OPLIN. He also provided a spreadsheet summarizing costs and services proposed under the contracts in question.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the contracts with Time Warner Cable, IFN, and Horizon Telecomm; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss agenda, date for April Board retreat

Stephen Hedges pointed out to the Board that April 13, the date for the Board retreat, is also the date for the OLC Northwest Chapter Conference. The consensus of the Board was that the Board retreat remain scheduled for April 13. Stephen also reminded the Board that the Strategic Plan and ethics training will be major items of business for the retreat, and also reviewed items that are regularly part of the Board retreat agenda. He asked that Board members send him any other items they would like to have on the agenda. The Board agreed to start the retreat at 9:00 rather than 10:00 AM.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that the Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) partners had met earlier in the week to talk about the rationale and process for buying Ohio Web Library databases, in preparation for soliciting bids at the end of this year for the next five-year database contracts. LCO may involve the review committee earlier in order to help develop the Invitation to Negotiate (ITN). Meanwhile, LCO has assembled a review team of librarians to review the responses to the current ITN for a genealogy and a foreign language database, with the intention of making selections in early April and requesting LSTA funding from the State Library Board on May 31.

Stephen participated in the Ohio Council of Library Information Service Organizations (OCLIS) meeting on December 19 to discuss the future of OCLIS. The organization had not met for quite some time, and the only activity in the bank account had been withdrawal of bank fees. The meeting attendees decided to close out all bank accounts and distribute the money remaining (approximately $685) in equal shares to Ohio Library Leadership and the Ohio Library Support Staff Institute (OLSSI).

Stephen will be meeting with Lynda Murray of OLC and NetWellness managers Dr. Susan Wentz (Case Western) and Dr. Phyllis Pirie (OSU) on February 16 to talk about health literacy initiatives. NetWellness has a grant from the National Library of Medicine to investigate how people search for and evaluate health-related information on the web.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted the E-rate
Form 471 workshop and his work on the Library Snapshot Day committee. He also pointed out that Karl Jendretzky had visited a number of libraries since the last meeting to work on technical issues, and also mentioned the website accessibility webinar Laura Solomon did for OLC.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported all of the new Juniper routers, except those to be purchased under E-rate, have arrived, and replacement of the old Cisco routers will soon begin. Karl also reported
on AT&T progress toward installing Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) circuits. He also informed the Board that he has implemented some software scripts that monitor the email server to prevent spamming activity. Finally, Karl reported that 24 libraries are currently in the process of implementing the new OpenDNS service.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Since Laura Solomon was ill and unable to attend the meeting, Stephen Hedges presented this report. There are currently 38 website kits in use, seven more in the training and content buildings stages, and fourteen under construction. Core security updates are to be applied overnight next Sunday. Stephen reported that update procedures are being reviewed, since the original procedures assumed a much lower number of website kit customers.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges presented database statistics, reminding the Board that the significant
drop in both searches and documents retrieved since October is a result of the fact that Biography Reference Bank was purchased by EBSCO, and usage is
now counted differently as a result of moving the database to EBSCO
servers.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

Jamie Mason read a note received from Diane Fink thanking the Board for the resolution and gift presented to her at the last meeting. Diane also expressed her enjoyment of working with OPLIN since its beginning.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Sandi Plymire the Board adjourned at 11:33 a.m.