December 14, 2012 Minutes

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

Minutes — December 14, 2012

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-fifth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:02 a.m. on Friday, December 14, 2012 by Board Chair Jamie Mason at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

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

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

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason asked if there were any changes to the meeting agenda. Stephen Hedges asked that item 6.1 under Old Business be delayed until after discussion of item 7.1 under New Business, since the discussions would be related.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Jamie Mason called for public participation.

Doug Evans had nothing to report from OLC. Karl Colón asked if OLC had done research on the impact any income tax cut might have on the Public Library Fund. Doug said he would send that information to Karl.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 12 meeting

Jamie Mason requested approval of the minutes of the October 12 Board meeting.

Sandi Plymire motioned to approve the minutes of the October 12 meeting as presented; Karen Davis seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of November 30. Report A detailed fiscal years 2010 and 2011, which are now closed and unchanged. Report B detailed fiscal years 2012 and 2013; fiscal year 2012 is now closed and unchanged. Report C showed cash flow. Stephen Hedges mentioned that the cash flow included some E-rate reimbursements that are requested every six months.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

Item 6.1, Branch connection for CLEVNET, was postponed until after Item 7.1.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discussion of support for library branch connections

Stephen Hedges shared his belief that OPLIN should have an interest in supporting Internet connections at library branch locations. Public computing at all library locations has become more important with the increase in e-government services and the prevalence of online job applications. Current Internet connectivity at library branches is inconsistent and in some cases unsatisfactory. If current budget and expenditure trends continue, Stephen thought OPLIN could have sufficient resources to fund a two-year pilot project that would provide limited financial support to public library branches that met defined Internet connectivity standards.

While the Board was interested in the idea of support for library branch connections, there was some discussion of how to define Internet connectivity standards and whether such standards would encroach on local library control. The Board was also concerned about the uncertainty of OPLIN funding in the upcoming biennial budget. Further discussion was therefore tabled until the April Board Retreat, by which time more should be known about the future OPLIN budget.

Item 6.1 from Old Business was taken up next.

6.1. Branch connection for CLEVNET

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that Cleveland Public Library (CPL) had requested an OPLIN connection to their Lakeshore branch to handle traffic resulting from their plans to construct a backup facility for CLEVNET libraries at that location. Stephen and Karl had discussed such "redundant" connections to major libraries with CPL quite a while ago, when the OPLIN Board was considering such a service. In light of the previous discussion about support for all library branches, Stephen suggested that he inform CPL that OPLIN had abandoned the idea of supporting a redundant connection at one branch and is instead evaluating the possibility of some support for all branches. By consensus the Board agreed with this suggestion.

7.2. Discussion of outbound malware filtering

Jeff Wale related a situation that occurred at the Toledo library that resulted in virus-infected machines sending out malicious Internet traffic, which in turn resulted in the Toledo library being black-listed from the Internet. Jeff explained how Toledo had solved the problem, but wondered if OPLIN could do something at the network core to keep similar problems from occurring in other libraries.

Stephen Hedges reported that some OPLIN library gets black-listed for malicious Internet activity a couple of times a year. Karl Jendretzky noted that monitoring the large volume of OPLIN data traffic could be technically difficult, but suggested that he work with Office of Information Technology (OIT) network engineers to explore possibilities for monitoring all outbound OPLIN traffic, or possibly just the traffic from a library that is having a problem with outbound malware.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that he has no news about the OPLIN budget since the email he sent all Board members after his October 18 meeting at the Office of Budget and Management. He expects the Invitation to Negotiate for the next five years of Ohio Web Library database subscriptions to be posted by Wright State University in the very near future. Stephen also reported that OPLIN is planning to test a wireless microwave connection to Puskarich Public Library, which may result in another possibility for connecting libraries to OPLIN.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted his visits to SEO in Caldwell and the Pike County public library system, and Laura Solomon's visit to Geauga County Public Library and her presentation at the Indiana Library Federation annual conference. Stephen also noted the birth of Karl Jendretzky's son on November 1.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported he has been working with OIT to consolidate the remaining OPLIN T1 lines onto a single DS3 circuit at the core. He also reported that the Barracuda spam filtering device was replaced under warranty after he started noticing problems, and that he has had to rebuild the SMS notification software after that vendor switched to a new API. Karl reported that Columbus Metro Library is about to move to a full 1 Gbps connection, the first OPLIN "Gig" connection to a library.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that she is in the process of completing the annual software upgrades to the website kits, with the biggest changes this year being new software for handling library event calendars and a new way to handle file management. She also reported that she added a collection of high-quality images to the new file manager for libraries to use in their website content.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported on database usage, but noted that three databases were affected by recent changes in the way the vendors collected and reported their statistics. He regretted that such continuous changes make it difficult to evaluate patterns in database usage over long periods of time.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Discussion of nominations for new board member

The Chair initiated a discussion about open Board positions. Because of discussions with the Ohio Attorney General's office, the Board was not able to take any action in regard to recommending a new OPLIN Board member for appointment by the State Library Board. The Board expects to revisit this matter at their February 8, 2013 regular meeting.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Sandi Plymire the Board adjourned at 11:56 a.m.