October 13, 2017

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

Minutes – October 13, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-fourth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 13, 2017 by Board Treasurer Travis McAfee at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jamie Black, Susan Brown, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, and Tara Sidwell.

Also present were: Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Bill Morris, Jamie Pardee, and Stephanie Herriott (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Black motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans thanked the OPLIN Board for their generous support of the OLC Convention and Expo; OPLIN's contribution made it possible for the 700+ attendees to have free Wifi. Doug reported that the October PLF distribution was $29.5 million, a little under the estimate but as the Department of Taxation is getting more conservative with their estimates this is closer than it was in the previous fiscal year. On Wednesday, October 10, Debbie Saunders was recognized by Ohio Senator Bob Peterson on the Senate floor for her award as Librarian of the Year, and she also received a commendation from the Ohio House. Kim Fender (OLC's 2017 Hall of Fame Librarian) will be getting similar recognition by the general assembly. Michelle Francis is working with local governments on a proposal to address concerns about legislation proposed by the Auditor of State's office regarding school and local government use of credit cards. The proposed legislation requires distinct separations between the compliance officer that manages the cards, the fiscal officer that pays the bills, and those individuals who use the credit cards. In small libraries, there may not be enough people to separate all those duties between them. And finally, the OLC Board will be making an appointment in November to fill the term Don Yarman vacated when he resigned from the board to become OPLIN's Executive Director. The Board has also appointed Meg Delaney as Ohio's ALA councilor to replace Jamie Mason who recently resigned for personal reasons. In January, newly elected Board members Tom Dillie (Minerva), Carol Herrick (trustee, Washington-Centerville), and Rick Rubin (trustee, Cuyahoga Falls) will be joining the OLC Board.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 11 meeting

Susan Brown motioned to approve the minutes of the August 11, 2017, meeting as presented; Jeff Garringer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Treasurer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the financial reports. She reported that about $1.5 million in disbursements have been paid for the current fiscal year 2018. The cash balance at the beginning of the fiscal year was about $2 million, with projections indicating that with this year's Erate reimbursements we'll have a cash balance of about $3 million. Last year's balance went down a million because of the timing of Erate payments, so they'll double up this fiscal year. She cautions us to watch that significant cash balance or the office of the Governor will appropriate it.

Jamie Black motioned to accept the financial reports; Susan Brown seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Treasurer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve State Library access to genealogy and continuous learning resources **

Don Yarman reviewed the current plans for licensing statewide content, including the $400,000 devoted to support genealogy resources and the $500,000 budgeted toward the purchase of resources in support of the Governor's Office of Workforce Transformation project. Before leaving, Stephen Hedges recommended asking the OPLIN Board to specifically approve including the State Library in access to these resources.

Susan Brown motioned to accept the financial reports; Chris May seconded.

Doug Evans asked if by extending access to the State Library they would be available only to state employees and not to the general public within the State Library. The understanding would be that it would include the public within State Library as well as remote access (if licensed) via a State Library card. Karl Jendretzky pointed out that this concerns only those databases that are restricted to in-library use, such as Ancestry, as others are authenticated for use anywhere in the state. Mandy Knapp agreed, adding that this mostly concerned statistics gathering and access to databases such as Ancestry (which we have not committed to acquiring) that are restricted to in-library use. Don Yarman noted that, 11 years ago, the State Library was routinely included as part of the contracts for products OPLIN acquired for public libraries.

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

7. NEW BUSINESS - none

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Don Yarman thanked the Board for selecting him as Executive Director, noting that he's delighted to be back with the organization working with such talented and helpful staff. Stephen Hedges was an admirable leader and a valuable asset to the state, and it's an honor and a challenge to succeed him. He noted that today is the deadline responses to the Ohio Web Library RFP. Also, the Co-Location Service has been announced to the library community, and we already have our first live tenant, the Central Library Consortium.

8.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon listed a number of libraries whose new Website Kits are nearing launch to the public: Euclid, Piqua, Upper Sandusky, and Delaware County. Staff from those libraries have been trained and are entering their data, or will be trained shortly. Our presence at the OLC Convention generated new interest in Website Kits and audits. We launched a new feature for the Kits – Flipping Book – which allows libraries to display PDF newsletters in a lightbox, with the interface replicating the look of turning pages. Laura will soon announce a new feature for the websites which allows libraries to easily place emergency announcements (such as emergency closures, maintenance issues, etc.) prominently on their site.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp reviewed the database usage statistics. She noted that the RFP for the Ohio Web Library closes today; we cannot see who submitted a bid, but we can see who looked at the RFP. The committees will meet in November to discuss the proposals, and we will have more information at the next Board meeting concerning the committees' early decisions and negotiating intent.

About 40 Ohio Web Library Specialists have all been trained. This program is similar to the iCoaches program developed by INFOhio. The OWL Specialists will be the point-person for database information and training in their library and they are available to travel to other libraries to conduct training as well (Mandy will help coordinate). OPLIN did not originally budget to reimburse the mileage for OWL Specialist travel, but we could allocate dollars from the “Unplanned Spending” line item.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that as more Internet sites move to https, browser appliances are starting to register certificate errors. The OpenDNS filtering solution we provide to libraries has a problem with "HTTP Strict Transport Security," the next generation of http redirection to https for secure web transmission, which removes the ability of a browser to make security certificate exemptions. Karl is working with Cincinnati for a fix – installing the Cisco root certificate in the browsers – while OpenDNS seeks a solution on their end. (Generally, this will only be a problem if the HSTS-enabled site is caught in the content filter and the user requests to by-pass the filter for access.)

The SMS Gateway service has been steady, sending about 100,000 messages per month for the last 6 months. We still have enough credits to sustain the service for next 18 months. Karl has built in safeguards that will stop sending messages if too many go out, preventing a rogue process at a library from accidentally depleting our entire credit balance.

On September 19, the OPLIN Core developed issues stemming from the solution Juniper provided to bind two cores together. Juniper is reviewing the problem because, as this is the solution they proposed, it's something they need to fix. The outage changed our method for migrating to the new location within the SOCC, but hasn't slowed the migration.

In addition, we are bringing up new AT&T connectivity at the SOCC. Currently, all AT&T circuits use Oarnet as a transport middle-man to connect to OPLIN; the new AT&T 10 Gb/s headend connection lets us remove all OPLIN circuits from Oarnet and plug them directly into our network. Rather than having CLEVNET install their own AT&T headend, the member library AT&T circuits will go directly into the OPLIN headend. Once we exceed 5.5 Gb/s of subscribed bandwidth, the headend cost drops to $0; the added bandwidth of the CLEVNET circuits will prompt AT&T to give us a second 10 GB port for free, giving us a redundant set of 20 Gb/s of connectivity into the AT&T network, which will cost us $0 monthly.

In early September, all Spectrum (formerly TWC) circuits were migrated from the 10 Gb/s headend in NR1 (Network Room #1) to the new 20 Gb/s redundant link in NR2, freeing up the 10 Gb/s port in NR1 for CLEVNET. So with the new 10 Gb/s port from AT&T, we can complete the upgrades to the 53 AT&T sites we started as part of the eRate cycle, bringing all but 4 OPLIN circuits to at least 100 Mb/s. We have a plan for the remaining four libraries – Cadiz and Bowerston have upgrade orders placed with Horizon, Grand Valley is waiting on OIT to turn up their circuit, and Huron will get their upgrade once CLEVNET moves to the SOCC.

Travis McAfee asked if were getting feedback from libraries on the upgraded capacity. Mandy replied that she is hearing that libraries' internal networks are not being upgraded to match the new capacity, so they're aren't experiencing an increase in speed.

We've been using Amazon Web Services to host the Web Kits; we upgraded to a nice, beefy server and the service runs very stable and provides us with great analytics and flexible alarms. Fifty-three of the sites have been moved to https, and the remaining sites will be migrated shortly. Karl would like to move some of the other public-facing servers onto AWS to minimize any public service impact stemming from hardware issues.

Overnight September 27, the Central Library Consortium moved their servers into NR3, becoming the first tenant in the OPLIN Co-Location Space. Once both cores are completely installed in NR1 and NR2, we'll be able to take full advantage of the fiber infrastructure we've put into the SOCC: 24 strands of fiber from each vendor space to each of the 3 network rooms, and 24 strands of fiber to connect the rooms together in a pyramid. In addition, Karl has ordered new handles for the rack doors, equipped with combination locks to keep tenants out of each other's spaces. hardware issues.

With the expansion of our available bandwidth, we've exceeded the capacity of our old DDOS appliance, which protected us against small attacks but not against the attacks which are getting exponentially larger. Oarnet is implementing a new solution which, in the event of an attack, will adjust routes to shunt the extra traffic through them, preventing attacks from saturating us. Oarnet has the new solution implemented with one provider, but there has been a delay finalizing it with the other (AT&T); Karl expects the solution to be in place by the first of next year.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

Joe Greenward did not send a report.

10. ADJOURNMENT

Susan Brown motioned to adjourn the meeting; Justin Bumbico seconded. The Treasurer adjourned the meeting at 10:53 a.m.