December 14, 2018

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

Minutes — December 14, 2018

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred seventy-first meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, December, 2018 by Board Chair Michael Penrod at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Angela Baldree, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, Tara Sidwell, Garalyn Tomas, and Holly Varley.

Also present were: Mandy Knapp, Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Angie Jacobsen (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Garalyn Tomas motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Angela Baldree 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.

Angie Jacobsen, Director of Communications for the Ohio Library Council, updated the Board on OLC activities. OLC has held a webinar about HB 312 which requires libraries to institute new credit card procedures by February 2; a recording of that webinar and sample policies are available from the OLC site. OLC also provided Hinkle system training for fiscal officers. Jacobsen also summarized other legislation they are watching, including HB 228, gun legislation that includes signage requirements regarding weapons, HB 291, bonding/insurance policy legislation, and SB 263, which makes changes to laws impacting notary services. Jacobsen reported that Michelle Francis has already met with Laurel Dawson, the governor-elect’s chief of staff, to discuss libraries and workforce development, including OPLIN’s Lynda.com subscription. Jacobsen highlighted in particular programs by the Mentor Public Library and the Columbus Metropolitan Library using Lynda.com in workforce development outreach in their communities.

Michael Penrod asked if the credit card legislation will apply to OPLIN. Yarman replied that the legislation brings restrictions to local government entities that are already in place for state agencies.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 5 meeting

Tara Sidwell motioned to approve the minutes of the October 5, 2018, meeting as presented; Jeff Garringer 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 the financial reports. OPLIN began the fiscal year with a $3.1 million cash balance, and is projected to end the fiscal year with about $2.8 million, depending on the eventual timing of E-rate reimbursements and expenditures. Current estimates for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 show the cash balance shrinking by about $320-330 thousand per year. OPLIN spent $4.5 million in fiscal year 2018; so far this year it has spent $3.5 million as some of the biggest expenditures – notably database subscriptions – are paid at the beginning of the fiscal year. Yarman mentioned that future fiscal reports may include an expenditure for consultants to help with the Drupal upgrade.

Garalyn Tomas motioned to accept the financial reports; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS — Don Yarman

6.1 Drupal Upgrade RFP update

Yarman updated the Board on progress toward releasing an RFP for consultants to assist with migrating the eighty library sites hosted by OPLIN to Drupal 8. The State Library Board will be asked in January to allocate LSTA funds to support the migration. Yarman plans to release the RFP later this winter, using the same proposal calendar and evaluation method Stephen Hedges designed for the last Drupal upgrade. The target is to have all websites upgraded by June 2020. All sites must then be upgraded to Drupal 9 before November 2021.

7. NEW BUSINESS — Don Yarman

7.1. Webkit service fee increase

Library fees for the Website Kits are intended to cover OPLIN’s actual costs to build and maintain them. In 2012, the annual cost for hosting/maintenance for OPLIN Website Kits was $180; to make sure that the revenue from the kits covered actual maintenance costs, the OPLIN Board voted to increase the fees by $40 each year until the target price reached $340 in FY2016. There have been no price increases since then, although staffing costs have risen. Yarman proposes raising the cost to $360, the $20 increase equaling just under 6%. (A $360 annual fee is also easy to pro-rate for new customers who join midway through the year.)

Michael Penrod asked if the other fees -- new modules, custom work, etc. -- would go up as well. Yarman replied that he and Solomon had reviewed the current costs for other services and they do not recommend changes to those.

Angela Baldree motioned to increase the annual maintenance fee for Webkit Sites from $340 to $360; Joe Greenward seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Yarman discussed his activities since the last meeting, especially those revolving around cybersecurity: meetings of the Ohio Cyber Collaboration Committee (OC3), cyber-related courses in Lynda.com, and meetings with the Ohio Library Council’s IT Division leadership to discuss cyber programming for Ohio libraries. He summarized the work of OC3 and progress on HB 747 which creates a civilian cyber security reserve force for Ohio.

8.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon discussed her continued exploration of Drupal 8, reporting significant improvements “under the hood” to the management interfaces and tools. She has discovered that the problem with recurring dates stems from the fact that date functionality is part of Drupal 8 core, but not all of the parts of the Drupal 7 date module have been incorporated. Not enough organizations use recurring dates to push for completion of development. There is progress, but it is slow. The OPLIN staff has identified three plans: potentially hire a consultant (estimated cost under $1000) to get date_recur working sustainably; use an iCal interpreter which Karl Jendretzky has designed, which will let libraries manage their events in an external calendar such as Google or Evanced; or return to procedures libraries had to use in Drupal 6, before recurring dates were supported.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp reported declining attendance for E-rate training, as more libraries have outsourced their E-rate filing to consultants. OPLIN has completed its first 470 for services starting July 2019, and staff plans to release a second 470 in January. The annual call for letters of agency from libraries has shown good response. Knapp reports that nationally there is still uncertainty whether Category 2 funding for internal maintenance (cabling, equipment, managed services) will be extended when it expires at the end of this service year. It has not yet been announced when the 471 window – when everyone files what services they have selected for the next year – will open.

Knapp reported that usage statistics for databases are stable. She is working with OhioNET to plan a series of training webinars using a combination of vendor trainers and librarian presenters. Yarman commented on a new statistic that OPLIN can pull: the most popular Lynda.com courses in Ohio libraries; since July, the top courses include Programming Fundamentals, Excel 2016, HTML and Javascript, Illustrator, Wordpress, Photoshop, and Time Management.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Jendretzky reported that, from the recent 470, OPLIN will file 43 circuit orders – 8 of those are upgrades, while the rest are just establishing new contracts for those that have expired. He is tracking which of these require supplementary orders with OARnet, which need old circuits disconnected in July, etc. Among these is the NEO Regional Library System, whose new offices have come up temporarily on a cable circuit; they will be brought up on fiber in July with the new E-rate service year.

The new SecurityIQ service has been well-received. The biggest user is CLEVNET with 3100 active users across 42 libraries. CLEVNET reports that their initial campaign had a 25% click-through on the phishing emails. Travis McAfee asked if staff in CLEVNET libraries were warned in advance of the testing campaign; Jendretzy believes that varied by library, as some had union contract concerns about non-HR staff seeing test results. OPLIN delegates the licenses to the library, and the library controls how they use the service. Bill Lane from Cincinnati praised how game-like the service is, rather than boring instruction.

The Co-Location Service at the State of Ohio Computer Center continues to serve libraries well. Jendretzky met staff from Worthington and Greene County in the last month as they serviced equipment; Euclid Public Library is about to move into rack space, and because the CLEVNET consortium network is run out of the SOCC, Euclid’s servers can be mapped directly through as if they were in the library. A couple more libraries have indicated they are budgeting to move in next year, and Jendretzky predicts we will soon need to expand the space into a second cage.

The Dorcas Carey Public Library has begun using OpenDNS; Jendretzky provided them with a network map to help them plan and implement the service.

Jendretzky reported that he and Terry Fouts have created a new base configuration for the SRX300 routers, updating the firmware and making the devices more flexible for individual library network requirements. He also reported that OPLIN has a new Juniper rep.

To address concerns raised at the last meeting about OPLIN’s direct support of a library’s VOIP implementation, Jendretzky met with CBTS that provides the state’s VOIP service to clarify for them which responsibilities are OPLIN’s, which are the libraries. Two more libraries are considering the CBTS service, and Jendretzky has had conference calls defining how those will go.

In addition to developing the calendar-feed importer for Webkit sites, Jendretzky has made enhancements to the SMS Gateway. While investigating a question from SEO about why a certain message wasn’t delivered, he discovered that our vendor Trumpia offers more detailed error reporting, particularly on communication problems after a message leaves Trumpia’s system. Jendretzky set up a listener script for incoming statuses on these failed messages, and working with CLEVNET and SEO to distinguish one library’s messages from another, updated SMS message handling so that library contacts will receive, once a week, a status report of their messages, complete with suggestions for correcting problems. Jendretzky added “re-try” logic to his scripts, resulting in fewer messages falling through the cracks while still making efficient use of OPLIN’s message credits. With the updated message handling, Jendretzky has discovered that SEO is the largest user of the messaging service, sending 13,000 messages per week, compared with CLEVNET’s 8,500.

Before moving on in the agenda, Angela Baldree asked Don Yarman if the allocation of LSTA funds for the Webkit sites upgrade to Drupal 8 will reduce LSTA fund availability to other libraries. Yarman said the LSTA strategic plan allocates different amounts to different programs; any funds awarded to OPLIN for this project would not reduce monies designated by the plan for library programs.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

No chair’s report this month

10. ADJOURNMENT

With no other business pending, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 10:54 a.m.