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

Minutes — June 9, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-second meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 9, 2017 by Board Chair Susan Brown at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and Stephanie Herriott (State Library); Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council); and Justin Bumbico, who starts a new term on the Board on July 1 and was introduced to the other attendees.

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain shared news about the biennial budget process and efforts to restore the reduced State Library funding proposed in the House version of the budget. She also reported that the "Ohio Libraries Share: MORE" resource sharing service will end on June 30. The cost has continued to increase while the software that runs the system has not been updated for a long time and usage has dropped 71% over the last five years as more libraries join consortia for resource sharing. Beverly provided a brief history of the MORE service. She announced that new Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants will be available for libraries that want to join consortia and described some of the consortia options.

Doug Evans reported that state revenues and contributions to the Public Library Fund (PLF) have now fallen short of budget projections for eleven consecutive months. The current version of the proposed budget could result in an additional reduction of almost $18 million less for the PLF each year. Doug described some of the budget options OLC is pursuing. The Ohio Library Council (OLC) presented testimony to the Senate Finance Committee regarding the PLF funding in the biennial budget on June 7, and the testimony about the return on investment in public library funding seemed to be effective.

Doug reported that the OLC Board is working on updates to the OLC strategic plan. They also decided at their most recent meeting to no longer charge for downloads of OLC publications. Doug also listed the candidates in the upcoming OLC Board elections.

Stephen Hedges noted that the OLC Government Relations Committee is also meeting this morning and Michael Penrod is splitting his time between that meeting and the OPLIN Board meeting.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 14 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the April 14, 2017, meeting as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Stephen Hedges presented the financial reports prepared by Jamie Pardee. He noted that available balances in the FY2017 Administration accounts are what they should be this late in the fiscal year with the exception of a couple of accounts that are not used as much as in previous years. Stephen pointed out some available balances in the Other Library Support Services accounts that are also not likely to be used. He predicted that total unused account balances at the end of the year will be just under $300,000. He noted that he plans to work with Jamie to develop the FY2018-2019 budget once there is more information about the legislature's biennial budget intentions. Finally, Stephen reported that it is now almost certain that almost $900,000 in E-rate revenue will not be received until next fiscal year due to delays at the federal level.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to accept the financial reports; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Stephen Hedges reported that he plans to work with the State Library to review the amount of resources used to provide fiscal and related services to OPLIN and may include some payment to the State Library in the new budget. For many years, it has been assumed that the internet services provided to the State Library by OPLIN offset the cost of provided fiscal services, but this may no longer be accurate.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges presented two documents: one was a copy of the current strategic plan marked to show how content was transferred to the second document, a reformatted plan that was discussed at the April Board meeting. Stephen reminded the Board that the reformatted plan is divided into sections covering items that do not change from year to year, and items that may change annually. Some fundamental aspects of OPLIN are unlikely to change in the next four years (two budget cycles): the Mission; the Priorities; and the Strategies. The Services, Operations, Marketing and Finances plans that support these fundamental aspects may change from year to year, and are included in a Tactical Plan section that would be reviewed annually.

Stephen noted that in April the Board had expressed a desire to retain most of the content from the current plan, condensing the three Priorities in the current plan to two Priorities in the new plan, and he described in detail how that content was re-organized and how wording was changed in some cases to be consistent throughout the new plan.

The Board was generally pleased with the new formatting of the plan. Cindy Lombardo asked that page numbers be added to the Tactical Plan and Jill Billman-Royer asked that "State of Ohio Computer Center" be spelled out in the Services summary.

Joe Greenward motioned to approve the new Strategic Plan with these two editorial changes; Cindy Lombardo seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Approve future database budget

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion during the April meeting regarding the discrepancy between the amount of funding OPLIN contributes to the purchase of the Ohio Web Library collection and the amount of usage the collection gets from public libraries. Stephen provided some additional data about this discrepancy. He noted that OPLIN has repeatedly received feedback clearly indicating that genealogy resources are very important to public libraries. Stephen reported that OPLIN's current average contribution to purchasing Ohio Web Library resources is about $1,427,000 per year, and proposed that the Board set a limit of about $1 million per year for Ohio Web Library resources, starting in FY2019, and use the balance for purchasing genealogy resources for public libraries or other resources identified by the Content Advisory Committee. It is important to let the other Libraries Connect Ohio partners know how much OPLIN will contribute before the process of identifying resources for the next five years begins.

Beverly Cain reported that the State Library had set a hard limit on the amount of LSTA funds that they would contribute to the Ohio Web Library several years ago. Stephen added that OhioLINK had set a limit of about $1 million annually on their contribution a couple of years ago.

Chris May motioned to set a limit of about $1 million per year for purchasing Ohio Web Library resources, starting in FY2019, and to inform our Libraries Connect Ohio partners that the next statewide purchases should be planned accordingly; Jeff Garringer seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

REPORTS

8. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz, Search Committee Chair, reported that the Executive Director position had been posted for six weeks and a number of good applications were received. The committee will meet after this Board meeting adjourns to discuss the candidates and the interview process.

9. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on the status of two purchases approved at the April meeting: the EZproxy authentication software, which should be approved by the Controlling Board on Monday, and the contract with Lorrie Germann for E-rate consultant services. He also provided an update on the "HOLMES" project, reporting that the preliminary proposal for a National Leadership Grant to fund development of the HOLMES semantic web search tool for librarians had not been selected for an invitation to submit a full proposal; after consulting with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the project partners plan to resubmit the proposal in the next grant round. Stephen shared information about OPLIN staff participation in the American Library Association's National Library Legislative Day in Washington DC, and he reported that the State Library Board awarded a $1.6 million LSTA grant to Libraries Connect Ohio to help purchase Ohio Web Library resources for the fifth and final year of the current contracts. Finally, Stephen reported on a meeting of a newly formed collaborative working on extending the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Ohio.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted Mandy Knapp's visits to three of the digitization hubs and his attendance at a number of legislative budget hearings, as well as presentations about OPLIN given by Mandy at the SEO Users Group meeting and by Stephen at the OLC New Directors' Workshop.

9.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that two new libraries have requested website kits, one after receiving a website audit from OPLIN. She also reported on her efforts to get information about purchasing Sitecues, a website accessibility product that was discussed at the April Board meeting, but there no longer seems to be a way to make contact with anyone since Sitecues was purchased by another company. Finally, she described the new way of presenting information databases that she has developed for website kit libraries; about a fourth of the website kit libraries have requested this change to their sites.

9.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp presented usage statistics for the Ohio Web Library and noted that Ancestry Library Edition continues to be the most used resource. Mandy also reported on the recruitment of Ohio Web Library Specialists. She received 41 applications and has scheduled a meeting with the regional libraries to get their involvement if they wish. She plans to schedule training for these trainers near the end of the summer. Mandy announced an upcoming webinar/seminar at the Columbus Metropolitan Library digitization hub to provide some basic information to libraries interested in digitizing materials. The programs about the Ohio Web Library that she proposed for the OLC Convention this fall were not accepted, so she is working with OhioNET to present them as webinars. Finally, she reported that she has been collecting color scans of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from the digitization hubs and is replacing some of the black and white scans currently in the Ohio Web Library.

9.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on the large number of circuit work orders currently pending as circuits are upgraded to 100 Mbps and the vendor connections at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) are upgraded and moved; in the next four months, there will be some change to every circuit in the network. Karl reported on the rerouting of OPLIN internet traffic so that it bypasses the circuit used by other state agencies and connects directly to OARnet, allowing eventual upgrade to 40 Gbps internet access. As for the duplication of the OPLIN core, Karl expects that project to be finished in about three weeks. The co-location space where libraries can install their equipment at the SOCC now has enough interested subtenants to require six racks, with Columbus Metropolitan Library planning to sublease an entire rack for their network equipment. Regarding the SMS messaging service, Karl reported that he still has about 3 million message credits that he was able to purchase at a sale price. Finally, Karl mentioned arrangements in progress for OPLIN to share OpenDNS filtering with OARnet, and for OARnet to share DDoS attack mitigation with OPLIN.

10. CHAIR'S REPORT

10.1. Resolutions

Chair Susan Brown recognized Jill Billman-Royer, who proposed the following resolution:

WHEREAS, BECKY SCHULTZ has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since July 2011, 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 service as the IT Manager at Portsmouth Public Library and her knowledge of technical issues gave her a valuable perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and WHEREAS she has provided additional service as the Chair of the OPLIN Board from July 2015 through June 2016, and WHEREAS she has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout her tenure on the Board, and WHEREAS she has volunteered to lead the search for a new OPLIN Executive Director beyond her tenure on the Board, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 9th day of June, Two Thousand and Seventeen, 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 BECKY SCHULTZ 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 BECKY SCHULTZ for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Joe Greenward seconded the resolution. All aye.

Chair Susan Brown recognized Cindy Lombardo, who proposed the following resolution:

WHEREAS, KAREN DAVIS has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since October 2010, 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 almost SEVEN years, and WHEREAS her experience as System Administrator and Director of the Sylvester Memorial Wellston Public Library provided an important perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and WHEREAS she has provided additional service as the Chair of the OPLIN Board from July 2013 through June 2014, and WHEREAS she has unfailingly contributed her valuable opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations, and WHEREAS she has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout her tenure on the Board, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 9th day of June, Two Thousand and Seventeen, 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 KAREN DAVIS 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 KAREN DAVIS for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Jeff Garringer seconded the resolution. All aye.

10.2. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Cindy Lombardo motioned to enter Executive Session to consider the compensation of a public employee; Karen Davis seconded.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

The Board entered Executive Session at 11:29 a.m.

The Board returned from Executive Session at 11:33 a.m.

Susan Brown expressed the Board's appreciation to Stephen Hedges for his good work over the past year and provided him with a copy of his evaluation summary report.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Cindy Lombardo and second of Jeff Garringer the meeting adjourned at 11:35 a.m.

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

Minutes — April 14, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-first meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:02 a.m. on Friday, April 14, 2017 by Board Vice-Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); and Beverly Cain and Ashleigh Conkey (State Library).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Karen Davis motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Vice-Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain talked about her concerns over the proposed cuts to federal funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). So far, Ohio has only received about half of the IMLS funds expected this fiscal year. These funds are very important to Ohio libraries, so this funding will be a focus of the upcoming National Library Legislative Day. She is also concerned about the announced overall reduction in the state budget due to declines in revenue.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of February 10 meeting

Chris May motioned to approve the minutes of the February 10, 2017, meeting as presented; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Stephen Hedges presented budget information as of the end of March 2017, including expenditures for the FY2016-2017 biennium and cash flow for the FY2014-2015 and FY2016-2017 bienniums. He reviewed expenditures for administration accounts, calling attention to the budget for advertising the Executive Director position and for new office computers, and also reviewed expenditures for new routers for the network. He pointed out the annual decreases in telecommunications expenses, but expects that cost to stabilize as most of the connections become covered by long-term contracts. Looking at expected revenues, he noted that the approval of the OPLIN E-rate application has been very delayed this year, which also affects the timing of the receipt of E-rate reimbursements. It is possible that a large portion of anticipated E-rate reimbursements may not arrive before the end of this fiscal year; however, delayed receipt will simply result in larger E-rate revenue in the next fiscal year.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to accept the financial reports; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Decide on database authentication

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion at the February meeting about OPLIN purchase of EZproxy from OCLC and a number of possible configurations that could provide easy access authentication for users of the databases when they are not in a library. Soon after that meeting, it became clear that there was only one configuration that would work for OPLIN needs, so a quote for that type of service was received from OCLC for $37,422 annually. The configuration will authenticate users through proxy-by-port, so only one SSL certificate is needed which OPLIN already owns. OPLIN staff discussed the configuration with OCLC technical staff to make sure it would work as intended. Stephen also reminded the Board that this purchase would be combined with other State Library purchases from OCLC and would require Controlling Board approval.

Karl Jendretzky reported that some specialized database vendors are changing their products so that our current EZproxy software cannot handle authentication; the statewide databases are unaffected so far. For some libraries, he has been able to work around this by switching to proxy-by-port, but this does not solve the problem for all of the them.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the purchase of EZproxy stand-alone software licensing; Travis McAfee seconded.

Karen Davis asked if the libraries with database authentication problems would have to wait two months until the EZproxy purchase was complete before their remote users could use the databases. Karl confirmed that is correct, and reported that he has spoken with the affected libraries and they understand the problem.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Decide on staff raises

Stephen Hedges explained that this is a repeat of Board action taken the previous two years. The state has allowed 2.5% annual pay increases for state employees, but the Board must approve the increases each fiscal year.

Cindy Lombardo motioned that, in that the E-1 salary tables in Ohio Revised Code 124.152 awards State of Ohio E-1 employees a 2.5% salary increase beginning on the first day of the pay period that includes July 1, 2017 and allows increases up to 2.5% for other exempt state employees, the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees, in accordance with the duties assigned by Ohio Revised Code Section 3375.66, approves adjusting the compensation of each OPLIN staff member to one that reflects a 2.5% salary increase for each employee beginning with the pay period that includes July 1, 2017.; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

PLANNING SESSION

8. Background reports from OPLIN staff

8.1. Budget background

Stephen Hedges presented information on the Public Library Fund (PLF) in the proposed state budget and how OPLIN funds are drawn from the PLF. He also reported on INFOhio lobbying to have their funding increased by $1.1 million in FY2018-2019, to correct cuts to their funding in the current budget biennium. INFOhio funding directly affects the Ohio Web Library databases, since INFOhio normally contributes about $500,000 each year to the cost of these databases, but has only been able to contribute a total of about $500,000 over the last two years under the current reduced budget. IMLS funding is also a huge component of the funding for Ohio Web Library purchases.

8.2. OPLIN/OIT/OARnet

Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky discussed the current relationship between OPLIN, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and OARnet. Stephen presented information about the history of the relationship between the three entities and noted that there currently seems to be more cooperation and less competition among them. Karl described some examples of this cooperation: sharing denial of service protection and possibly content filtering with OARnet; direct 10 Gbps connections to OARnet for internet access; and working with OIT to reconfigure and duplicate the OPLIN network core.

8.3. SOCC Co-location

Karl Jendretzky provided an update on the project to create space in the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) for library-owned servers and networking equipment, noting that the routers needed to link the equipment racks are expected to arrive any day. The OPLIN core will be first to move, which will require some brief downtimes for the network, as telecommunications vendors' connections to the network core are being re-designed.

Karl also reported that he is gradually deploying the new routers to libraries and will increase the pace somewhat this summer, but OIT staff will not be available to do the bulk of the work until the third quarter of the year.

8.4. Ohio Digital Network

Mandy Knapp explained that the Ohio Digital Network (ODN) is the Ohio Service Hub of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and OPLIN coordinates the digitization hub libraries to serve as the ODN Community Engagement Center for public libraries. Current work revolves around identifying and gathering metadata for the first submissions to DPLA. The State Library has hired a contractor to set up Repox, the software that will be used to aggregate the metadata from libraries. Mandy is thinking about the training and assistance that will be needed for libraries with limited digitization experience. Mandy and Laura Solomon are exploring ways that a library's digitized materials could be integrated into their Drupal website kit.

8.5. Website accessibility

Laura Solomon reported that she had seen web-based software last year called "sitecues" that adds zoom and speech features to websites. This can greatly increase the accessibility of the site for people with special needs. The product was relatively expensive and to integrate it into the website kits would either require doubling the annual website maintenance fee or a commitment by OPLIN to pay the cost, which would be a change from the current policy of recovering the costs of hosting website kits. The sitecues company has since been purchased and new pricing has not been published.

The Board expressed tentative interest in such a product to boost website accessibility, but it was agreed that no decision can be made about purchasing until current pricing information is available.

8.6. E-rate services

Stephen Hedges pointed out that OPLIN has been contracting with Lorrie Germann, the state E-rate coordinator for schools, to present workshops and provide E-rate assistance for public libraries, as well as preparing OPLIN's E-rate applications. Now Mandy Knapp, the state E-rate coordinator for public libraries, has joined OPLIN. Mandy should be able to do what Lorrie has been doing, but Stephen recommended continuing with Lorrie's contract for one more year because the E-rate system is still going through big changes, and Lorrie is still working on issues caused for OPLIN by those changes. E-rate reimbursements are such a big portion of OPLIN revenues, it is important to avoid mistakes. Mandy and Lorrie together would provide backup to each other until things stabilize. Stephen also pointed out that the E-rate changes have meant that fewer libraries qualify for E-rate discounts; this is something that should be kept in mind as the Board discusses the place of E-rate assistance in the OPLIN strategic plan.

8.7. Ohio Web Library Specialists

Mandy Knapp described a new initiative, Ohio Web Library Specialists, that she plans to announce next week. Based on the successful iCoaches program developed by INFOhio, OWL Specialists will provide in-person training to library staff in effective use of Ohio Web Library resources and will be acknowledged for their expertise. The Content Advisory Committee recommended that existing database experts among public library staff be identified, and Mandy intends to provide initial training to all Specialists in the fall. The eventual goal is to have at least one in every county.

Chris May asked if the initiative will be coordinated with the regional library systems. Joe Greenward asked if there will be a directory of Specialists on the OPLIN website. Mandy said she would make sure both things happen.

8.8. OWL Invitation to Negotiate

Mandy Knapp and Stephen Hedges presented information about the upcoming Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) for new five-year Ohio Web Library database contracts. Mandy provided a general timeline and explanation of the process, with planning beginning as soon as the state biennial budget is set. Stephen pointed out that the end of the current five-year contracts could be a turning point for the Libraries Connect Ohio partnership, and gave a brief history of that partnership. He also distributed a chart showing the irregular history of INFOhio contributions toward the cost of the databases.

Stephen noted that he had attended an INFOhio Board meeting to discuss this, and they are well aware of the problem and already looking for more stable sources of funding than the state budget. Aside from budget pressures, both OhioLINK and INFOhio are being pressured by their parent organizations to provide more resources that directly support curricula, while public library users want resources that are of personal interest to them. Those two pressures — money and different user mandates — could alter or even split the partnership.

9. Outcomes of Content Advisory Committee meeting

Mandy Knapp reported on the annual meeting of the Content Advisory Committee held in late February. The committee discussed the difficulties in comparing usage statistics from different vendors. They also chose five people to serve on the OWL ITN selection committee and discussed ways to get feedback from the public library community on desirable databases. Mandy also discussed using vendors to provide database training to librarians, but the committee felt that training from a librarian was often better, so Mandy has proposed several programs for the Ohio Library Council Convention this fall that will combine both vendor and librarian trainers.

The Board recessed for lunch at 11:05 a.m. and resumed discussions at 11:45 a.m.

10. Review of current Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges presented the current plan with areas highlighted that might need changes and also a simplified one-page plan. He began discussion by asking for reactions to the one-page plan.

Several Board members expressed an appreciation for the ability to get a quick overview from the one-page plan, but also wanted the ability to see the more detailed content in the current plan that has been so carefully crafted. Stephen noted that organization of the one-page plan differed somewhat from the current plan.

Stephen then described proposed changes to the current plan which he feels are needed, noting that further changes could make it the detailed plan to accompany the one-page plan. Several services are new since the current plan was written, and there are also some questions about continuing a few current services, based on the morning's background presentations.

Travis McAfee noted that many libraries are not aware of all the services OPLIN offers. Jill Billman-Royer suggested that social media could be used to call attention to specific services.

Discussion turned to the E-rate training and support currently provided by OPLIN. In response to a question from Cindy Lombardo, Mandy Knapp reported that smaller libraries tend to be the ones that attend the training, while many of the larger libraries hire consultants to handle their E-rate applications. Travis suggested continuing the trainings until there was a noticeable drop in demand. Jill and Joe Greenward suggested changing the wording to "offer E-rate guidance" and Stephen remarked that he thought this activity should be moved from the Marketing category to Operations. The consensus of the Board was to accept Stephen's suggestion to continue Lorrie Germann's contract for another year.

Turning to the Ohio Web Library partnership, Joe noted that it is hard to make plans when the funding is so uncertain. Cindy wondered if the share of funding from OPLIN could be re-negotiated with the other partners, and Stephen replied that the partners had already had conversations about the mismatch of funding to usage and should be willing to re-negotiate. Stephen then clarified the various portals to the collection, noting that ohioweblibrary.org is available for use by anyone in Ohio. Beverly Cain speculated that the school representatives on the committee that selects the databases for the collection might have undue influence on the decision, and Stephen reported that the partners have also talked about possibly making some modification to the committee membership based on the amount of funding contributed.

Stephen also noted that both INFOhio and OhioLINK are under some pressures to provide "open educational resources" for schools and other resources specifically targeted to the classroom, while we know that public library users have very different interests. Chris May pointed out that as libraries buy their own resources to satisfy patron demand, usage of Ohio Web Library may continue to slip. Mandy noted that about 40% of public libraries buy their own databases. Stephen suggested that OPLIN could decrease the funds contributed to Ohio Web Library and use the savings to buy databases of interest to the public. Karl Jendretzky thought vendors may not be eager to sell OPLIN databases that they were successfully selling to individual libraries, and Travis confirmed that was his experience at NORWELD. Joe wondered if the ITN could be used to get quotes for databases for OPLIN only, and Stephen replied that could be done, but the other partners just buy their own resources outside of the ITN process. Stephen will make sure the wording of the strategic plan supports OPLIN paying a fairer share for the Ohio Web Library collection.

A few more items in the proposed plan were now discussed. It was decided to provide a circuit "for use by" the State Library, since the main circuit is now outside the OPLIN network. It was felt that mentioning the Ohio Digital Network by name was too specific. Some discussion took place about the pricing of extra user accessibility for website kits. Stephen and Laura suggested that the cost recovery model for website kits be dropped in favor of a fee set by the Board. Karen Davis suggested retaining the cost recovery model and making accessibility beyond the standards an option for libraries that want to pay. Since the strategic plan does not directly address website kit pricing, Stephen suggested that this debate be postponed until there is more information about the cost of accessibility options.

Stephen will prepare a revised version of the proposed plan for further review at the next Board meeting.

REPORTS

11. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz reported that the request for applications for the Executive Director's position would be posted on the state's website from April 17 to May 31. The Committee will review applications when they meet on June 9 and start making plans for interviews.

12. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges informed the Board that changes to the format and location of the RightClick conference this fall make it impossible to host an ice breaker the evening before. He also shared language that will be added to the OPLIN website to clarify that website kits have limited storage space on the servers, enough to host a large website but not enough to use for extensive storage of other files.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted his attendance at several budget hearings and at the ETM libraries meeting in Westerville, visits to Rockford and Coldwater libraries by Karl and Cleveland Public Library by Mandy, and presentations done for librarians by Laura and Mandy.

12.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that there are now 74 libraries using website kits, with three of those still in development. She has developed this year's Summer Reading Program templates, with sixteen orders so far, and has also been busy with a number of website redesigns lately. Laura has done four full audits of websites and 12 more audits of website kits. She also reported that she has taken down an old legacy OPLIN website, "Famous Ohioans," because the technology used to build the games on the site — the majority of the content — is no longer supported. Finally, she described a new way she has been perfecting of displaying information about the Ohio Web Library databases on a website kit.

12.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp shared database usage statistics and reported that she discovered an error in the aggregated data we were getting from Ancestry Library Edition, so those usage statistics are much higher now. She also noted that she has been answering a lot of questions from libraries about the new item in the state data report regarding "Successful Retrieval of Electronic Information."

12.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky informed the Board of a good promotional price he got on SMS messaging credits by buying about two year's worth of credits now.

13. CHAIR'S REPORT

13.1. Approve recommendation from Nominations Committee

Karen Davis shared a list of the nominations received to fill three open seats on the Board after July 1, and she also provided some demographic information about the current Board and the nominees. She noted that all candidates were very well qualified and the committee's decision was difficult.

The Nominations Committee recommended that the Board ask the State Library Board to appoint Jamie Black, Justin Bumbico, and Tara Sidwell to three-year terms on the OPLIN Board beginning July 1, 2017.

Karen briefly described the experience and qualifications of each recommended candidate.

Jill Billman-Royer seconded the Committee's recommendation. There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the recommendation; all aye.

13.2. Begin Director's evaluation process

Stephen Hedges distributed the spreadsheet used in past years to evaluate the Director's performance and asked if anyone would like to suggest changes. In response to a question, he clarified that the Customer Focus section was added last year because the state now requires that evaluation for all employees.

Joe Greenward asked all Board members to send their evaluations to him no later than May 26.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jeff Garringer and second of Jill Billman-Royer the meeting adjourned at 12:55 p.m.

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

Minutes — February 10, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixtieth 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, 2017 by Board Vice-Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Vice-Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain talked about staffing changes at the State Library; Penelope Shumaker has been hired as the Ohio Digital Network metadata specialist and Anne Kennedy has been hired as a library consultant. Beverly reported about the State Library allocation in the Governor's executive budget for the next biennium is the same as the current allocation, and that the State Library and OPLIN had met with the Legislative Services Commission to provide background information for the LSC explanation of the budget. She is now waiting for her legislative testimony to be scheduled.

Doug Evans reported that state revenues and contributions to the Public Library Fund (PLF) continue to lag behind projections. The Ohio Library Council (OLC) is reviewing the executive budget, which proposes rolling back the PLF percentage of tax revenue to 1.66% instead of the current 1.7%. There has been good media coverage of the discrepancy between the Governor's remarks about the important role of libraries in continuous learning and his proposed reduction in funding. Doug encouraged everyone to attend Legislative Day on March 29. Doug also reported that the OLC Board has begun a new year with some new members and officers and noted that this will be the last year for Chapter Conferences.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 9 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the December 9, 2016, meeting as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented budget information as of the end of January 2017. She called attention to year-to-date disbursements for administrative expenses, which correlates closely with the budgeted amount. She also pointed out almost $808,000 that has been added to the budget for purchase of new routers, the annual payment to the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) for internet access, and telecommunications expenses that are matching the budget pretty closely. She also reviewed past and anticipated revenue and expenditures.

Jamie explained the portions of the Governor's executive budget proposal regarding OPLIN. The numbers from the Office of Budget and Management (OBM) appear to reflect an increase in OPLIN funding, but in fact the proposed funding is exactly the same as it has been for the past six fiscal years. This was explained during the meeting with the Legislative Services Commission that Beverly Cain mentioned. Stephen Hedges noted that the introduced budget bill language regarding OPLIN is exactly the same as it has been for the past few biennium budgets.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to accept the financial reports; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Decide on Copyright Reform Statement

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion at the December meeting of a "Copyright Reform Statement from an eBook Perspective" being circulated for signatures by the Califa Group, a library consortium in California. The Board tabled this item of business in December, requesting more information about this initiative. Califa Interim Director Paula MacKinnon responded to an email from Stephen Hedges, reporting that Califa is launching the statement on change.org to facilitate signing. Stephen shared the URL of the statement on change.org and noted that OPLIN had supported OLC's work in the past on changing the ways libraries can acquire ebooks. He also noted that the change.org website does not list the current signers. Basically, Califa is asking that libraries be included in discussions of copyright change.

Several Board members doubted that the initiative would be effective as currently organized, though they also voiced no objections to the goal of the initiative. There was no motion to approve signing the statement. Stephen suggested that he monitor the progress of the initiative and bring this item of business back to the Board if it eventually looks like it might have some impact.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Decide on OLC 2017 Convention sponsorship.

Stephen Hedges shared a letter from Lori Hensley, OLC, requesting that OPLIN again sponsor the OLC Convention at the Platinum ($10,000) level. This supports the internet connectivity at the Convention. Stephen noted that OLC provides free exhibit booth space to OPLIN and space for the OPLIN Annual Update, and has always been very good about acknowledging OPLIN support throughout the convention.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to sponsor the OLC 2017 Convention at the Platinum level; Jeff Garringer seconded.

Doug Evans reported that OLC hopes that they can also acknowledge OPLIN sponsorship on the "splash" screen that greets Wi-Fi users at the Convention this year.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7.2. Decide on Ohio History Day sponsorship

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that in the past two years they have sponsored two "Advanced Digital Researcher" awards at each Ohio History Day, a large event where high school students present history projects for judging and selection to advance to the National History Day. These $125 awards recognize a junior project and a senior project that have demonstrated effective use of the Ohio Web Library resources. Stephen noted that he will not be able to present the awards in person this year, but from his experience in past years he believes the History Day organizers would do a good job of acknowledging OPLIN sponsorship.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to sponsor two awards for participants in the 2017 Ohio History Day; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7.3. Decide on database authentication

Stephen Hedges explained the need for a method of authenticating users of the statewide information databases when they are outside a library and described the current use of EZproxy software for that purpose. He reported that the current version of the software can no longer be upgraded without buying a new license; the software continues to work, it just cannot be upgraded for security reasons or to support new features.

Mandy Knapp reviewed alternative authentication methods and reported that none would replace EZproxy. Mandy shared four possible configuration options for EZproxy and the quotes she had received from OCLC for licensing each option, depending on how many "instances" are purchased to handle proxy authentication for individual libraries. Currently, many libraries use the OPLIN EZproxy to authenticate users of databases purchased locally.

Comments from Jill Billman-Royer, Chris May and other Board members indicated a preference for options that do not shift any costs for authentication from OPLIN to the local libraries. Travis McAfee speculated that many libraries may not currently know about the option to use the OPLIN EZproxy software for their locally purchased databases.

Karl Jendretzky and Mandy introduced a related issue; some database vendors are beginning to put their resources on HTTPS secure websites that require Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates for encrypted access. Depending on the type of certificates that EZproxy can use and how the proxy is configured, there could be significant costs involved. Some ways of configuring the proxy to save cost for SSL certificates might prevent users of some cellular networks from accessing the databases.

The consensus of the Board was to distill the options further and return to this business at the April planning meeting; the Vice-Chair also requested that OPLIN staff come to an agreement on the preferred option by then. Jamie Pardee noted that any expenditure to OCLC would require Controlling Board approval, because it would be an addition to the amount that the State Library already spends with OCLC annually. Stephen Hedges pointed out that this is a good reminder that we may not yet have all the information we need to make a decision.

REPORTS

8. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz, Search Committee Chair, shared a copy of the Search Committee's final draft of the Executive Director position description, incorporating suggestions from the Board and Stephen Hedges, and invited comments. There were none, so she asked for Board approval to post the position on April 17.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the Executive Director position description and post the position for applications beginning April 17, 2017; Travis McAfee seconded.

Becky reported that the timeline the committee has developed assumes applications would be accepted for four weeks. Stephanie Herriott provided some information about where the position would be posted. There was some discussion about budgeting for advertising the position and the length of time to accept applications, with Stephanie noting that applications were only accepted for two weeks the last time the position was posted. Several Board members felt that four weeks would not be long enough.

Jill Billman-Royer amended her motion: to approve the Executive Director position description and post the position for applications beginning April 17, accepting applications for six weeks. Travis McAfee concurred with this amendment.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

9. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges noted that another item of business at the December meeting had been approval to start looking for a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) that could handle DDoS attack mitigation for the OPLIN network. It currently appears that OARnet also plans to buy a DDoS mitigation service, which would probably protect the OPLIN network behind OARnet. Stephen is postponing the search for an MSSP until he has more information. Stephen also reported on the kick-off meeting for the Ohio Digital Network, the Ohio service hub for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA); Stephen is a member of the ODN Executive Committee and Mandy Knapp is the coordinator of the public library Community Engagement Center.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted: the ETM Libraries meeting in Yellow Springs; a meeting with Kendra Albright, the new Kent State library school director; Mandy's meetings with the Office of Workforce Transformation and INFOhio; several training presentations by Laura Solomon; and some work by Karl Jendretzky at the Fort Recovery Public Library.

Finally, Stephen reported that the preliminary proposal for the "HOLMES" semantic web reference tool for librarians had been submitted to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and is awaiting approval to develop a full project proposal.

Doug Evans excused himself from the meeting.

9.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon announced that New Carlisle Public Library and Upper Sandusky Community Library both have new website kits, and she has been talking to Euclid Public Library about building a website kit for them. She also announced that she has launched the new website audit service, which offers an in-depth survey of non-kit websites for a fee and an overview audit of website kits for free (since OPLIN controls much of the behavior of website kits). Laura reported that she has been working on inserting linked data into website kits to better expose library event information when someone does a general internet search for library information, and she is beta testing this with one website. Finally, she and Karl Jendretzky have been researching progressive web apps, websites built to act and feel like mobile apps. There are currently important limitations, but Karl is interested in rebuilding the OPLIN Support website as a progressive web app to take advantage of the ability to push notifications to phones.

9.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp provided a graph of database usage trends since August 2014; recent usage conforms to past usage by month. She noted that a repair to Science Online searching in ohioweblibrary.org resulted in a doubling of the usage statistics, showing the importance of that search interface for access. She also provided a map showing the number and locations of users accessing the databases through EZproxy in January. Mandy announced that she would be meeting with the Content Advisory Committee on February 23, with a major topic on the agenda being some database training options.

Mandy reported on a meeting she arranged with representatives of the Community Engagement Centers of the Ohio Digital Network to coordinate strategies; she has learned that she will be serving on the ODN Advocacy Working Group. She will also be meeting with the Digitization Hubs in March and plans to visit each of them in the near future.

9.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on the status of the new core and site routers, providing a diagram of the OPLIN network core as it will be configured when the redundancy rebuild is started and a diagram of the network core as he expects it to look in 2019, and he showed a piece of the fiber optic cable which will be used in the rebuild. OPLIN and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) have been working together closely on this project, as well as the data center co-location project at the State of Ohio Computer Center. Karl reported that OIT deployment of the new site routers will probably begin within the next few weeks and will take a year or more to complete. Karl also provided a diagram of the OPLIN server cluster and load balancers for future hosting of the website kits, which is entirely based on open source technology.

Karl also reported that use of the SMS gateway for sending library notices continues to see strong growth. He also is investigating using the OpenDNS service to filter mobile hotspots belonging to a library. Finally, he reported that the orders for new 100 Mbps circuits to libraries have been filed.

10. CHAIR'S REPORT

10.1. Appoint Nominations Committee

Following the wishes of Chair Susan Brown, as conveyed by Stephen Hedges, Vice-Chair Joe Greenward appointed Karen Davis, Becky Schultz and himself to the Nominations Committee. The committee will work with Stephen Hedges to select candidates to fill current and upcoming vacancies on the OPLIN Board and will develop a slate of proposed officers for election at the August Board meeting.

10.2. Review April planning meeting arrangements

At the request of the Chair, Stephen Hedges explained the usual procedures for the planning meeting and lunch arrangements. There were no objections to organizing the meeting as it had been in the past.

10.3. Ethics training reminder

The Vice-Chair called attention to a list of ethics training options for Board members. Stephen Hedges noted that Board members are required to complete training before the end of the year, and he asked that everyone send proof of completed training to him for record keeping.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Karen Davis and second of Jeff Garringer the meeting adjourned at 11:45 a.m.

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

Minutes — December 9, 2016

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-ninth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:04 a.m. on Friday, December 9, 2016 by Board Chair Susan Brown at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); and Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott, Jamie Pardee and Brad Schmidt (State Library).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so Chair Susan Brown called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain reported on the status of hiring staff at the State Library to work on the Ohio Digital Network, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Service Hub for Ohio; Jen Johnson has been selected as the ODN Project Coordinator, and the first meeting of committees will be in January. The State Library has also had a number of staff retirements. Beverly also reported that the State Library Board will award a number of LSTA grants to libraries at their December meeting.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 14 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the October 14 meeting as presented; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented budget information as of the end of November 2016. She called attention to the disbursement of about $6,000 to support the DPLA planning grant to Columbus Metropolitan Library. She also noted that almost $808,000 had been added to the budget for purchase of new routers, which has been approved by the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), leaving about $120,000 in E-rate funds that have not been allocated for any purpose.

Chris May motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Decide on SOCC co-location service

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion at their October meeting about renting rack space at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) to allow Ohio public libraries to take advantage of the SOCC's hardened infrastructure. As noted at the last Board meeting, the CLEVNET library consortium plans to move the servers that provide services to the CLEVNET libraries to the SOCC because it is such a stable data center. OPLIN could expand this idea and reserve a cage of server racks at the SOCC for public library usage. Stephen provided details of rack capacity and costs.

Stephen suggested that OPLIN could provide free space for servers that provide services to more than one library, to encourage library consortia to use the SOCC for critical servers. For other libraries that want to put their equipment at the SOCC, OPLIN could pass the SOCC costs on to them. Stephen suggested that $360 per year per rack unit used should cover that cost, and he provided the calculations used to arrive at that figure. Stephen also noted that there had been a question at the last meeting about library IT staff access to the racks, and he has confirmed that key cards can be issued to library staff managing their equipment.

In response to a question from Jill Billman-Royer, Karl Jendretzky explained how power usage is monitored by the SOCC. Karl further noted that libraries could also locate their own network headends in this space, installing firewalls and bringing branch connections to the SOCC rather than locating the headend in the library. He has already had a discussion with one metropolitan library about this possibility. Servers located at the SOCC could also be protected against network attacks.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to lease a cage and necessary server racks at the SOCC for public library equipment, charging $360 per year per rack unit to the library for cost recovery, except for equipment in use by more than one library system, in which case there would be no charge; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

Susan Brown confirmed that OPLIN would only be billed by the SOCC for power used, and also noted that there was no expectation that this service would ever "break even." Stephen and Karl both noted that they feel the SOCC has overestimated the typical amount of power used by a rack of equipment, but billing would indeed be based on actual usage, not the estimate. Karl also noted that OPLIN equipment would be located in the same cage.

Cindy Lombardo expressed her hope that there would be good publicity to the libraries about this service, which she feels would be beneficial for many of them. Michael Penrod asked what the benefit would be for a library like his, and Karl pointed out that any server which was important to the library could be located in an environment that was much more secure and stable than any environment the library could provide. Jill pointed out that OPLIN staff would also be located closer to a library's networked equipment in the event that assistance was needed.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

6.2. Decide on managed security services

Stephen Hedges noted that some aspects of this business item had already been explained in the previous discussion. The appliance OPLIN now uses to protect the network from attacks would not be able to mitigate a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) of the magnitude that is becoming increasingly common on the internet. Larger devices are now available, but the licensing is very expensive and they are still not large enough to mitigate a large attack. Stephen also pointed out that these appliances are actually intended for protecting servers, not an entire network.

Stephen explained that there are Managed Security Services Providers (MSSPs) that offer a variety of managed security services including round-the-clock monitoring and management of intrusion detection systems and responding to emergencies. While most of them can detect and identify DDoS attacks, few of them actually offer to mitigate the attacks; more commonly, they just alert their client that an attack is underway. Stephen and Karl Jendretzky have found four services that look like they might be able to mitigate attacks. DAS has issued an RFP for managed security services, but they are not asking for DDoS mitigation service; however, Stephen suspects there are internal discussions happening about DDoS mitigation, since the rest of the state network is currently protected by the same type of appliance OPLIN is using.

If OPLIN were to pursue a contract with an MSSP for DDoS mitigation, Stephen pointed out that no Controlling Board approval would be needed if the annual cost is less than $50,000. Stephen's recommendation would be that the Board approve initiating the process of purchasing managed DDoS mitigation with the stipulation that no more than $50,000 per year can be spent. He noted, however,that this process should start with discussions with DAS before approaching vendors.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to initiate the process of purchasing managed DDoS mitigation with the stipulation that no more than $50,000 per year be spent; Joe Greenward seconded.

Karl Jendretzky pointed out that there is no need to replace the current appliance immediately and agreed that DAS is likely to purchase something for the state network, which might also protect the OPLIN network. Stephen estimated that the current appliance would need to be replaced within a year. Joe Greenward asked if $50,000 per year would be enough, and Karl and Stephen replied that they thought it would be, based on the information they had seen.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Decide on copyright reform statement

Stephen Hedges shared a copyright reform statement circulated by the Califa Group, a nonprofit consortium of libraries in California, in the hope that other library organizations will sign on to the statement. The statement addresses proposed changes to current copyright law and their effect on e-publications in libraries. Stephen briefly reviewed the problems libraries have with licensing of e-publications and reminded the Board of past support for the Ohio Library Council (OLC) project that raised awareness of these problems. He also shared information about the opposition of the Library Copyright Alliance to proposed copyright changes.

Stephen noted that he has not been able to find any list of library organizations that have signed the Califa statement, nor any website for this effort. In response to a question from Cindy Lombardo, Stephen said he did not know of any approaching deadlines for copyright reform.

Jill Billman-Royer asked if the State Library or OLC had signed the statement. Beverly Cain reported that the State Library had agreed to sign after receiving a request from Califa, but had not received any further information after they responded to the request. Chris May also reported that he had searched for more information about this initiative and was concerned that there was not more transparency. Beverly Cain provided some background information about Califa and noted that they are going through a transition right now; Mandy Knapp pointed out that the Copyright Office may also be going through a transition.

The Board asked Stephen to contact Califa and request more information about this initiative.

Beverly Cain excused herself from the meeting.

7.2. Decide on semantic search grant

Stephen Hedges asked for permission to open a conference call with Karl Cólon, Director of Greene County Public Library, and Pascal Hitzler, Director for Data Science at Wright State University, to provide background information.

Karl Cólon and Pascal Hitzler joined the meeting by telephone.

Stephen introduced Pascal and Karl and provided a brief overview of his conversations with them since last spring about the possibility of building a software tool that would use the semantic web to assist librarians with answering vaguely-phrased questions from patrons about library materials. The tool would tentatively be called HOLMES, and conversations have been started with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) about applying for a National Leadership Grant to fund research and early development of HOLMES.

Pascal explained that there has been remarkable growth in the last few years of structured data that is available on the web to semantic search tools, data that can be used by a software reference tool for librarians. Stephen said that it looks like the best organization to apply for a National Leadership Grant to build a prototype of such a tool would be OPLIN, rather than Wright State University or Greene County Public Library. There would be no cash match required from OPLIN, just some administrative work.

Karl Cólon provided some examples of how this tool might be used by rural and small libraries. He also clarified that Greene County would provide its MARC records for use in the project and would act as a beta tester. Cindy Lombardo asked Karl to compare the proposed tool to Ask Jeeves, and Karl replied that, while similar, Ask Jeeves relied heavily on keyword searching while the proposed tool would search structured data. Susan Brown asked if there would be any problem with OPLIN being the applicant while Wright State was the primary investigator, and Karl replied that Pascal and Wright State University had prior experience with such arrangements.

Michael Penrod motioned to apply for a National Leadership Grant from IMLS to fund research and early development of a semantic search reference tool for librarians; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

Travis McAfee asked how the proposed tool would interact with other library software tools. Karl Cólon clarified that the proposed project was intended to test the feasibility of building a tool, and interaction with other tools was a much larger issue that would be addressed in follow-up grants if the project proved feasible. Pascal added, however, that he feels certain something can be made to work, he wants to find out how hard it will be to make it useful.

Karl Jendretzky asked if the project would basically be converting flat MARC files to data that could be searched semantically. Pascal answered that the project should go beyond that by combining the MARC data with structured data from the web that describes the same resource in different ways. Karl explained that his question was whether the MARC data would be added to the tool as flat files or would there be a live connection to the Greene County catalog, and Pascal replied that within the scope of the research project, this would not matter, and would be a question for later development if the tool is feasible.

Stephen reported that Jason Kucsma from Toledo-Lucas County Public Library had also expressed interest in having their digital strategist involved with the project.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

REPORTS

8. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz, Search Committee Chair, reported that the committee has almost completed the process of finalizing the job description and plans to post the Director's position on or about April 17, 2017.

9. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on his attendance at the Internet Librarian conference in Monterey, California and shared some information from a presentation he attended about the Culture in Transit digitization project in New York City. He also reported on this year's RightClick conference, which was well attended; he received positive feedback from several library directors who sent IT staff to the conference. Stephen provided an update on two projects the Board had approved at the last meeting: the 100 Mbps circuits for all libraries, and the purchase of new routers. Both projects are well underway.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted training sessions Laura Solomon had done in Indiana and on the internet, two being webinars about best website practices that the Board had discussed, as well as visits Karl Jendretzky made to Zanesfield and Delaware libraries, and a meeting he and Mandy Knapp had with INFOhio about their iCoaches program to see if something like it could be used for training public librarians to use the databases.

9.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon noted that the webinars she gave about best practices for websites has renewed interest in the website kits. She reported on the development of the website audit service that the Board discussed at the last meeting and explained that there will be free simplified audits available to website kit customers. The complete, paid audit service is currently in testing. Laura has completed an update of the website kits manual. She has also been investigating Drupal version 8, which will be a nice upgrade but does not yet support all the functions needed by the website kits.

9.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp noted that this is the end of her second week at OPLIN. She presented database statistics using a graph in a new, more detailed format. Other graphs focused on the less-used databases and showed that while some are continuously increasing in usage, others are continuously declining. She has been working with the Digitization Hubs to publish some information about their experiences, modeled loosely after the Culture in Transit toolkits that Stephen learned about at the Internet Librarian conference. Mandy also noted that she had gathered a lot of useful information from the meeting with INFOhio about iCoaches. Finally, she reported that she is preparing for the Content Advisory Committee meeting in February.

9.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky began by providing a little more information about how semantic searches differ from keyword searches. He then reported that the SMS service is still growing at about 30% per year, and also reported on the status of the OpenDNS service and overall bandwidth usage. Since the last meeting, a new component card in the OPLIN core router failed, which disabled the entire network on a holiday weekend; he noted that this is a good example of why it will be nice to have a second core router. The web hosting service that OPLIN has been using for the website kits, thinking it would be more dependable than OPLIN servers, also failed, so he is building a new, more robust OPLIN hosting solution that will use redundant load balancers across redundant servers. Finally, as a result of the 100 Mbps circuit upgrades, the AT&T circuits to the SOCC may soon be moved to a headend direct to OPLIN, rather than passing through OARnet first.

10. CHAIR'S REPORT

Chair Susan Brown reported that Marty Beets has tendered his resignation from the Board because he is leaving the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County to take a job in private industry.

The Chair recognized Joe Greenward to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, MARTY BEETS has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since June 2014, 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 two and a half years, and WHEREAS his service as the Director of Technology Operations at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County gave him an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and WHEREAS his extensive knowledge of technical issues has always been a helpful source of information for the Board, and WHEREAS he has consistently contributed his valuable opinions to OPLIN Board deliberations, and WHEREAS he has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout his tenure on the Board, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 9th day of December, Two Thousand and Sixteen, 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 MARTY BEETS 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 MARTY BEETS for his continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Jill Billman-Royer seconded the resolution. All aye.

The Chair noted that this opening on the Board was not expected, and asked Stephen Hedges to talk about the timeline for filling the opening. Stephen explained that the Board usually appoints a committee in February to start the process of soliciting nominations for Board openings created when Board terms end in June, so the State Library Board can complete the appointments in a timely manner. The OPLIN Board could adhere to this timeline and ask the State Library Board to appoint someone to Marty's position along with the other positions that will be opening, or the State Library Board could be asked to appoint one person to start their term on June 1, while the other terms would start July 1. The Board could also start a nominations process now for one position and another nominations process in February for the other positions. Jill Billman-Royer noted that the Board is otherwise at full strength now and there would not be a significant difference between filling Marty's position in June or in July. The consensus of the Board was to wait and fill Marty's position at the same time as the other positions that will be coming open.

11. ADJOURNMENT

The Chair adjourned the meeting at 11:40 a.m.

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

Minutes — October 14, 2016

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-eighth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:05 a.m. on Friday, October 14, 2016 by Board Chair Susan Brown at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Marty Beets, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott, Jamie Pardee and Brad Schmidt (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so Chair Susan Brown called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain introduced Brad Schmidt, an undergraduate intern at the State Library this semester. Beverly also reported that the Ohio application to become a Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Service Hub had been approved; the State Library will now hire three people to work on establishing and managing the Hub. Nathan Tallman from the University of Cincinnati provided technical information to DPLA on a pre-approval phone call that Stephen Hedges was unable to attend.

Doug Evans thanked the Board again for their support of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Convention and Expo; there were 681 attendees, and OPLIN's support was prominently acknowledged. Doug reported that Public Library Fund revenue is a little lower than expected, but is still projected to be about $380 million in 2016. Michelle Francis is traveling around the state presenting information at twenty libraries about the upcoming state budget; the legislature will have to renew the current formula to maintain current funding. There are fifteen local library levies on the November 8 ballot. Doug also reported that this is the last day for OLC members to vote in a special election regarding changes to the OLC organization, including dissolving the five OLC Chapters. Doug explained the history of the Chapters and the reasons for the proposal to dissolve them.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 12 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the August 12 meeting as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye, with Jill Billman-Royer abstaining.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented budget information as of the end of September 2016, the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Expenditures for Information Resources and for the Office of Information Technology (OIT) have already been paid under annual contracts. Anticipating a discussion coming up later in the agenda, Jamie pointed out that the amount currently in the Unplanned Spending Authority line could be moved by the Board to any other budget line to pay for special projects. Jamie reported that the current cash balance is much lower than it was at the end of June because of the expenditures already paid under annual contracts and delays in receiving E-rate reimbursements. The E-rate delays relate to setting up the new system for receiving reimbursements, as now required, but everything is ready and OPLIN should start to receive E-rate monies again.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve plans for network enhancements

Stephen Hedges reviewed Board discussion at the August meeting concerning some possible network enhancements, after which the Board had asked for more detailed plans. Stephen provided a document with information about five possible projects, including advantages and disadvantages, cost estimates, and other options. Stephen talked through this information first and asked that the Board make motions to open discussion on any projects that interested them.

The first project would be replacing routers at the library sites. Manufacturer's support for most of the current routers will end in July 2018, and Karl Jendretzky pointed out this means there would be no more software patches to correct bugs and security vulnerabilities after that date. The last time OPLIN replaced routers the project took two years. Stephen described the recommended new routers and discussed the pricing. Most routers would be smaller and quieter than the current routers.

The second project would upgrade all OPLIN public library circuits to at least 100 Mbps, a total of about 100 upgrades except for a few sites where 100 Mbps is not yet feasible. Usage data indicates that many small libraries would not use that much bandwidth, but that is the minimum bandwidth recommended for public libraries by the Federal Communications Commission. Because that is also the bandwidth recommended for many schools, pricing from telecommunications vendors for 100 Mbps circuits is usually very competitive, and with OPLIN's E-rate discount the increase in annual cost would not be substantial.

The third project would replace the current security appliance at the OPLIN core with a hosted security service. OPLIN bandwidth will soon exceed the capacity of the current appliance, and buying a second appliance may not be a possibility due to company acquisitions. A hosted service would be more expensive over time than a second appliance, but has the advantage of being maintained and monitored 24x7x365. Purchase of such a service would most likely require Ohio Controlling Board approval. Karl Jendretzky noted that the proposed plan for this project would require more work before the project could be started.

The fourth project would add a second OPLIN core router at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) and upgrade the current router to create two identical routers that would be operated in tandem but located in separate areas of the SOCC, providing seamless redundancy in the event one of the routers fails. Almost all OPLIN data passes through the core router, so this would eliminate a single point of failure in the whole network. Stephen discussed pricing from one vendor; if the purchase were to proceed, quotes from three vendors under State Term Schedule contracts would be collected. Karl Jendretzky explained that the new core hardware would be able to do MACsec encryption, if this were ever required by the government. In response to a question from Travis McAfee, Karl noted that our current support agreement for the core router is next day replacement, meaning if some components of the current core router failed, the network would be down for a day.

The fifth project would provide equipment rack space in the SOCC free of charge for servers that provide services to more than one library. This would allow consortia to place their servers in an extremely stable, protected and secure building at the heart of the OPLIN network in an area dedicated to public libraries. SOCC charges are calculated by the rack, with a set monthly lease cost plus the cost of power used. It may also be possible to sub-rent rack space to libraries that want to house their own servers at the SOCC, and OPLIN could bill them for the monthly costs, but there are some questions that would need to be clarified with the Office of Information Technology (OIT) to know if this is possible.

Michael Penrod motioned to approve all the projects; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. The Chair called for discussion.

At the request of the Board, Karl provided more detailed information about the two models of new site routers that OPLIN and OIT have chosen. Jill noted that replacement of the routers would be a proactive step to maintain the network in good condition. Marty Beets noted that he had been in a situation in the past where routers with no available vendor support were used, and it was not a good experience.

Michael noted that duplicating the core router would not be as visible an improvement as new site routers, but was no less important to maintaining the network. He also noted, however, that the project to upgrade network security needed more planning and information. As background, Karl provided more information about network attacks and the current and proposed ways of stopping them. Karl and Stephen both agreed that the security proposal needs more work, but Stephen noted that something will need to be done within the next year due to the capacity limitations of the current security. Travis asked if duplicating the network core now would affect decisions about a future security method; after some consideration, Karl diagrammed the various network options to provide security under both methods currently under discussion.

Michael Penrod moved to revise his original motion to approval for just the purchase of upgraded site routers and the hardware necessary to duplicate the OPLIN core router, as well as related maintenance support, instead of approval of all five projects; Jill Billman-Royer seconded the revision.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the revised motion.

Recorded vote: Marty Beets, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

The Board now reviewed the other possible projects.

Karen Davis motioned to approve providing at least 100 Mbps circuits to all libraries wherever feasible; Travis McAfee seconded. The Chair called for discussion.

Susan Brown pointed out that OPLIN already provides adequate bandwidth based on each library's actual needs, regardless of what the FCC may recommend; Michael Penrod agreed. Travis McAfee noted, however, that meeting the FCC recommendation could be a point of pride for many smaller communities, and the additional cost would not be substantial. Marty Beets shared that Cincinnati had upgraded all of their branches, regardless of size, to the same very large circuits and it was very well received, even though actual circuit usage did not change. Karl Jendretzky noted that such a large batch of upgrades would eliminate the need for the many small batches OPLIN currently does, and would also provide some spare bandwidth if a smaller library has a temporary internal network problem. Marty asked Stephen Hedges for his opinion; Stephen replied that he personally did not favor spending money on unnecessary things, but in this case the amount of money involved compared to the good will created makes these upgrades the politic thing to do.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Marty Beets, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

Karl informed the Board that some of the upgrades would involve some contract negotiations and may take longer than others; they would not all be completed immediately.

The Board set aside the other two possible projects pending gathering of more information.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss website audits

Stephen Hedges reported that Laura Solomon's webinar on September 13 about common library website problems was very well attended and received. One of the participants asked if OPLIN offered any consultation or budget advice for library websites, which prompted an OPLIN staff discussion about the possibility of doing library website "audits" for a fee. Stephen suggested that a standardized checklist of things to look for on a website could be developed and used for such audits. OPLIN would not work with any website designers the library may have hired, nor would OPLIN offer discounts to libraries that subsequently decide to purchase a Dynamic Website Kit. OPLIN would simply use a standardized checklist to do the audit, would then create a report and delivery it to the library, and then invoice the library. Initially the fee could be based on the time spent, calculated using the same hourly rate as custom work on website kits.

Laura Solomon made some additional suggestions. Free audits might be requested quarterly or twice a year by current website kit customers. Laura has been doing performance tuning on many websites and has noticed that images are often used improperly; she has in fact planned a webinar on this topic on November 16. Laura also suggested that she might offer to do banner images for website kit customers for a reasonable price, since these images are sometimes particularly bad.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve offering website audits to Ohio public libraries for a fee; Becky Schultz seconded. The Chair called for discussion.

Jill remarked that website audits would be beneficial to the library community and asked if there was a general estimate of how much time an audit might require; Laura replied that a basic audit would probably take about an hour, and assumed most libraries would only be interested in a basic audit.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

8. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz, the Search Committee Chair, confirmed that Stephen Hedges' new retirement date is September 30, 2017. Based on that date, the committee has developed a new timeline, expecting to have the new Executive Director start on October 2, 2017 after appointment by the Board at the regular August 11, 2017 meeting. The committee does not feel that the special meeting planned for May 12, 2017 will be needed and recommends that it be removed from the Board meeting schedule. The committee will be meeting immediately after this Board meeting to finalize the job description, and plans to post the position in mid-April 2017. Becky also noted that her second term on the Board will end before the Search Committee work ends, but she would like to continue on the committee until the work is finished; there were no objections from the Board.

There was no discussion regarding the Search Committee's recommendation to revise the Board meeting schedule, so the Chair called for a vote on the recommendation; all aye.

9. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges added some information to Beverly Cain's news about the approval of the application to DPLA to create an Ohio Service Hub, and reminded the Board that he will be serving on the Executive Committee of the Ohio Digital Network, as the Service Hub will be called. Stephen described his experience at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) annual conference August 14—19 in Columbus, where OPLIN displayed a floor banner on the Library Boulevard; more than 3,200 librarians from 145 countries attended. Stephen also reported on the OPLIN booth at the OLC Convention and Expo in Sandusky (September 28—30) and the OPLIN Annual Update at the convention, which was better attended now that it is no longer called the "Stakeholders Meeting." Finally, Stephen reported on a meeting Beverly Cain scheduled for October 11 with Paolo DeMaria, the new Superintendent of Public Instruction at the Ohio Department of Education, and the Libraries Connect Ohio partners, where there was a good discussion about INFOhio's funding.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted visits Karl Jendretzky made to Wauseon Public Library, Southwest Public Libraries and the Northeast Ohio Regional Library System, and also several training sessions Laura Solomon had done for librarians. Stephen also reported that he had attended Sandi Plymire's retirement reception at Muskingum County Library System and met with the CLEVNET Directors Committee at the SOCC.

9.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon noted that everything that would have been in her report had already been discussed as new business.

9.2. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on several recent circuit changes, some of which should enable OPLIN to have a free headend from AT&T at the SOCC. Karl has also examined the Who's On My Wifi software that the State Library will be providing to libraries and can answer any questions libraries have. Turning to OpenDNS, Karl noted that 21 CLEVNET libraries are now using it since the advanced licensing became available, so there are 136 libraries statewide now using OpenDNS. Karl is also working on new secure proxy access for some libraries to their databases, and has also been working on moving the website kit servers to a hosted server company that will provide weekend support.

9.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that usage of documents retrieved from the databases was about 6% more than it was last year, even though the number of searches was about the same.

10. CHAIR'S REPORT

Chair Susan Brown had nothing to report.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jill Billman-Royer and second of Michael Penrod the Board adjourned at 12:00 p.m.

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

Minutes — August 12, 2016

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-seventh meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:55 a.m. on Friday, August 12, 2016 by Board Chair Becky Schultz at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Marty Beets, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Becky Schultz presented the slate of officer candidates recommended by the Nominations Committee: Susan Brown, Chair; Joe Greenward, Vice-Chair; Cindy Lombardo, Secretary; and Michael Penrod, Treasurer. Becky asked if there were any additional nominations or questions, and there were none.

The Chair called for a vote on the slate of officers submitted by the Nominations Committee; all aye.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Karen Davis motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so Chair Susan Brown called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

4. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY 2017

The Chair presented the proposed Board meeting schedule for Fiscal Year 2017. Becky Schultz commented that the Director Search Committee felt that a special meeting on May 12, 2017 would also be needed. The Chair then asked for approval of the following schedule of meetings, all at the OPLIN office starting at 10:00 a.m. unless otherwise noted: August 12, 2016; October 14, 2016; December 8, 2016; February 10, 2017; April 14, 2017 (9:00 am start); May 12, 2017; and June 9, 2017. The Chair also asked for approval of two further meetings for planning purposes: August 11, 2017; and October 13, 2017.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve the Board meeting schedule as revised; Chris May seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Michelle Francis reminded the Board of events coming up at the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Convention in late September, particularly the OhioMeansJobs session and comments by Sen. Randy Gardner, as well as a legal update from OLC's legal counsel. Regarding the current Public Library Fund (PLF) distributions to counties, Michelle noted that actual distributions have been below estimates, but an increase is anticipated next year. Preparations have begun to try to get an increase in the PLF funding formula in the next biennium budget; Legislative Day is March 29 next year.

6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 10 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the June 10 meeting as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented budget information as of the end of Fiscal Year 2016 (June 30) and as of the end of July in the new fiscal year (2017). Expenditure amounts in FY 2016 were close to budgeted amounts except for the Telecommunications category, where expenditures were significantly less than budgeted; the FY 2017 budget has been adjusted accordingly. Jamie noted that the cash balance at the end of FY 2016 was large and anticipated to be larger at the end of FY 2017.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Chris May seconded.

Stephen Hedges called attention to the cash balance and presented some general information about plans to use these funds. He noted that the preferred use of the funds would be specific project support, rather than increasing ongoing annual costs. He also reminded the Board that support of digitization initiatives in public libraries is part of the OPLIN Strategic Plan, but at this point any costs involved with such support are unknown. Stephen demonstrated that much of the cash balance results from large E-rate reimbursements and lower telecommunications costs.

Cindy Lombardo asked how much the year-end cash balance should be. Stephen and Jamie agreed that it would be best to have $1—$2 million in reserve.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

8. OLD BUSINESS — none

9. NEW BUSINESS

9.1. Discuss plan for replacing network equipment

Karl Jendretzky reported that the current OPLIN routers at library sites have passed their end-of-sale dates. He would like the Board to consider replacing them with new Ethernet switches that have dual power supplies and support the current IEEE MAC Security standard (MACsec) to encrypt data.

Karl also reported that new hardware will soon be installed at the OPLIN network core to replace the current single 10 Gbps internet connection through the Office of Information Technology (OIT) with dual 20 Gbps connections through OARnet. The current network intrusion detection device can only protect one connection, so it would be ideal to purchase a second.

Karl suggested that a second network core router could then provide complete redundancy protection to the OPLIN network.

In response to questions, Karl answered that the current site routers are about seven years old, and that network core equipment that can handle more than 10 Gbps is more complex and significantly more expensive.

Stephen asked if the Board was interested in seeing detailed plans from Karl for expanding network capability and improving security at the next meeting, and they were.

9.2. Approve new position description

Stephen Hedges explained that Amie McReynolds has resigned her position at OPLIN, but her duties had changed quite a bit during the six years of her employment, so it would be better to fill her open position with someone doing other work that would be more valuable for supporting current OPLIN goals. OPLIN staff have discussed a variety of ideas. One idea was to hire a systems administrator to allow Karl Jendretzky to spend more time assisting libraries on site, but there is another way to do that which will be discussed later. Staff eventually agreed on a Digital Resources Manager who would work with the libraries and partner organizations on issues related to information databases, digitization and training; this person would also have to backup network support calls as needed. Stephen presented a rough draft of such a position description and suggested an annual salary around $50,000.

Susan Brown asked if most of the work would be done in the office or remotely, and Stephen replied that the person would need to be present in the office to backup network support, but would occasionally need to travel to conventions and meetings. Susan asked if an MLS/MLIS degree would be required and Stephanie Herriott replied that the similar positions she has identified require such a library degree. Stephanie also noted that postings for such positions often get a lot of response from librarians currently working at higher education institutions.

Michael Penrod motioned to approve the draft of the Digital Resources Manager position description with the understanding that Stephanie Herriott would edit it to final form; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

10. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz reported that the Director Search Committee has met a couple of times and developed a timeline for the process of finding a new director following Stephen Hedges' retirement next June. They plan to finish writing the job description in October.

11. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of a brief discussion during the last meeting about alignment between the goals in the Strategic Plan and the job goals of OPLIN staff, and he provided information about OPLIN staff goals. As part of the criteria for evaluating staff performance, each person has two "job goals" related to daily operations, one "project goal" related to a current OPLIN project, and one "stretch goal" for developing new skills and knowledge, and all are explicitly related to an OPLIN Priority from the Strategic Plan.

Stephen also reminded the Board of a question at the last meeting about the possibility of a follow-up to the database survey with questions about library staff database training and how usage statistics are collected and used. Stephen emailed the Content Advisory Committee to get their thoughts about a possible follow-up survey, and while committee members thought training and statistics information could be interesting, it was pointed out that the purpose of the survey was to help the committee with future database decisions, and training and statistics information would not be useful for that purpose. Stephen suggested that a new survey may be helpful after the new Digital Resources Manager has become established. The Chair asked Stephanie Herriott about the time required to hire a Digital Resources Manager, and Stephanie thought the process would move quickly, perhaps as quickly as six weeks.

Stephen reported that the LSTA-funded Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) in Ohio planning process has come to an end, so there was a meeting at the State Library to discuss the transition to governance of the Ohio Digital Network, as the Ohio DPLA service hub will be called. The Digitization Hubs, OhioLINK and the Ohio History Connection, the organizations identified as Community Engagement Centers for the Ohio Digital Network, decided that OPLIN should continue to play a role in this initiative as the communication point for public libraries and the public library representative to the Ohio Digital Network Executive Committee.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted a CLEVNET meeting he and Karl Jendretzky attended, where Stephen explained the OPLIN Strategic Plan. He also reported that Laura Solomon had been a speaker at the Ohio Library Support Staff Institute at Ohio Northern University.

11.1. Library Services Manager report

In the absence of Laura Solomon, Stephen Hedges reported that there has not been a lot of demand for new websites since the last Board meeting, but several other things have been happening. Laura will be teaching a webinar for TechSoup on August 24 on the basics of social media analytics. She will be teaching the first OPLIN webinar about common problems with library websites in September, using webinar software from the State Library, and the webinar will be recorded. Promotion of this webinar will begin next week; Michelle Francis reminded Stephen that OLC would also like to promote this webinar.

The Website Kit "Module Market" continues to be an effective way for libraries to order additions to their websites and to remind them of what is available. Finally, Laura and Karl have started testing outsourced hosting of the website kits.

11.2. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky explained that after discussions among OPLIN staff about Amie McReynolds' open position, it was decided to start exploring the option of using a hosting company for the website kits and other any high-profile OPLIN websites, rather than hiring a systems administrator to allow Karl to undertake different tasks. He has the OPLIN main website running with one such company and has been monitoring the performance and comparing it to the current servers he manages.

Karl reported that the State of Ohio had a subtle problem with their intrusion protection system that was restricting State of Ohio and OPLIN traffic to the internet at peak load times; that problem has been corrected. New "fabric" cards will soon be installed in the OPLIN network core router that will allow us to use a path to the internet that does not pass through the state's intrusion protection, which duplicates OPLIN's own intrusion system.

Karl also reported that the new OpenDNS licenses have allowed a number of CLEVNET libraries to begin using the system; 134 libraries now have OpenDNS accounts. Use of the SMS messaging system continues to see strong growth.

Karl explained that as library websites continue to move to the HTTPS (HTTP Secure) protocol, the EZ-Proxy software that is used to authenticate access to databases through the websites will cause problems. The solution is to buy wild-card digital certificates for each library, which cost about $80 a year. For now, OPLIN will buy those as needed, but it may be worth talking to OCLC about hosted EZ-Proxy, since the software we have will not be upgraded with any easier way to handle HTTPS.

Finally, Karl reported that CLEVNET has moved backup hardware to the State of Ohio Computer Center next to the OPLIN core.

11.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that database usage continues to be slightly stronger than it was last year.

12. CHAIR'S REPORT

12.1. At-large appointment to Executive Committee

Chair Susan Brown appointed Becky Schultz to the at-large position on the OPLIN Executive Committee.

13. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Cindy Lombardo and second of Karen Davis the Board adjourned at 11:15 a.m.