OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SEVENTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Minutes — December 12, 2014
1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER
The one hundred forty-seventh meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, December 12, 2014 by Board Vice-Chair Becky Schultz at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.
Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Marty Beets, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, and Becky Schultz.
Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council); and Jamie Pardee (State Library).
2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Susan Brown motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Cindy Lombardo 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.
Doug Evans shared information about a Congressional Roundtable regarding e-books that the Ohio Library Council (OLC) hosted at the OCLC offices in Dublin on October 22. Local Congressmen Pat Tiberi and Steve Stivers attended and learned about library lending of e-books. The Ohio Legislature has also passed SCR22, asking Congress to ensure public access to e-books through public libraries.
The Ohio legislature is also discussing a sales tax holiday which could reduce the Public Library Fund by about $1 million per year. The legislature also came to agreement on re-districting reform. Doug explained that funds which the legislature allocated to townships was actually a re-purposing of funds that had been intended for grants to townships and not any indication that the legislature was increasing any local government funding.
Doug also distributed a graphic of the new OLC Strategic Plan draft and invited comments.
4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 10 meeting
Don Barlow motioned to approve the minutes of the October 10 meeting as presented; Ben Chinni 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 information about the current fiscal year budget, which looks as expected about half way through the year. The listed Office of Information Technology (OIT) charges are much lower than usual, because a change from monthly to quarterly billing introduced errors that have not yet been corrected by OIT. Stephen Hedges noted that OIT also changed some of the OPLIN global charges to charges assigned to specific libraries, which caused some initial confusion. He also reported that it appears as if total OIT charges will be reduced by about $3,000 per month, due to a decrease in bandwidth cost beginning July 1. Jamie then presented the actual and projected cash balance reports.
Stephen reported that OPLIN has just received word that their office building is under new management, which may affect the negotiations that the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) is about to begin for the next biennium lease.
Karen Davis motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.
6. OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business to come before the Board.
7. NEW BUSINESS
7.1. Approve maintenance credit for nineteen website kits
Stephen Hedges presented a list of nineteen (19) website kits customers who had been more severely affected by a Drupal security problem than the other website kit customers. Drupal released a critical security patch for Drupal version 7 late on October 15, then two weeks later announced that any website that had not been patched overnight had likely been compromised and would need to be completely rebuilt from backups done prior to their announcement. Laura Solomon did indeed detect evidence of intrusion in the Drupal 7 sites she had patched, so she and Karl Jendretzky worked with the libraries to make copies of all content they had added to their websites in the previous two weeks, and then rebuilt the sites from backups done early on October 15.
For the nineteen libraries under discussion, however, the October 15 backups were unusable, so those libraries had to recreate everything they had done on their websites since August 15, the date of the last usable backups. The backup system has now been repaired, but Stephen suggested that OPLIN also provide a year of free website maintenance and hosting to these libraries as compensation for the extra work they were required to do.
Don Barlow motioned to approve a year of free website maintenance and hosting to nineteen libraries as suggested; Cindy Lombardo seconded.
There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.
Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.
Stephen Hedges noted that none of the Board members present were employed by any of the nineteen libraries.
7.2. Approve RFP for outsourced Drupal theming
Stephen Hedges reported that Laura Solomon has been working on upgrading Drupal version 6 website kits to Drupal version 7 kits, which takes about a week for each library's kit. There are still thirty library website kits that need this upgrade, but Stephen proposed that it would be better to use Laura's talents on other projects and outsource the re-theming portion of the upgrade work, which is the part that requires the extended time commitment.
Stephen presented a draft Request for Proposals to perform the re-theming work and asked for Board approval, also noting that acceptance of any proposal would be much easier and faster under state procedures if the amount was under $25,000. Laura Solomon provided a more complete description of the work involved with the upgrades and the portion that would be outsourced. Jamie Pardee noted that such work, which would require specialized skills, was not available through any existing state contracts or IT Staff Augmentation through DAS.
Don Barlow motioned to approve release of the proposed RFP and give the OPLIN Director the authority to review proposals and enter into a contract for re-theming of thirty library website kits, as long as the cost did not exceed $25,000; Ben Chinni seconded.
During discussion, it was noted that outsourcing this one project allowed for more efficient use of OPLIN staff resources. In response to a question, Stephen clarified that the proposals would be reviewed by OPLIN staff. Stephen also noted that he hoped the work would already be underway by the Board's next meeting in February, since the contract end date had to be June 30, 2015, the end of the budget biennium.
There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.
Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.
7.3. Approve State Library personnel policies, work rules, and payroll forms
Stephen Hedges called attention to the wording of Ohio Revised Code Section 3375.66(A)(5)(a), which states that the State Library shall prepare and process payroll and other personnel documents "that the board approves." While OPLIN has followed State Library personnel policies and procedures since it was created, the Board has not approved any of those policies since this language was added to the Revised Code in 2008. Stephen suggested that it might be wise to approve all existing payroll and personnel documents, which were distributed to the Board prior to the meeting.
Susan Brown noted that the Code language could be interpreted in more than one way, and Stephen agreed. Stephen also noted that the payroll document for recording work hours was restrictive when used by OPLIN, since it does not provide a place to log evening work hours. Several Board members noted that OPLIN staff are salaried, and questioned the practice of requiring a "time sheet" from salaried staff; this led to extensive discussion of how pay, leave and overtime is calculated for OPLIN staff.
Cindy Lombardo motioned that the Board direct the State Library and the OPLIN Director to make changes to the time log sheet to accommodate evening hours, and that the Board ratify the revised time log sheet and all existing State Library payroll and personnel documents for use by OPLIN staff; Susan Brown seconded.
During discussion, Jamie Pardee clarified that OPLIN staff are categorized as "overtime exempt" and are therefore expected to log 80 hours of work and/or leave in each two-week pay period.
There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.
Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, abstain; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.
The motion passed with one abstention.
7.4. Approve revised 2008 teleworking policy for re-submission
Stephen Hedges explained that the State Library is writing a new teleworking policy; however, the OPLIN Board already approved a teleworking policy for OPLIN staff early in 2008 and sent it to DAS for approval, but never got a response from DAS. After discussing the situation with the State Library, agreement was reached that in this case, rather than following any State Library teleworking policy, it would be best to bring the 2008 OPLIN policy up to date and re-submit it, alongside the State Library policy, for DAS approval. He presented a new version of the policy with minor revisions for Board approval. Cindy Lombardo suggested a grammatical correction to clarify the meaning of one sentence.
Don Barlow motioned to approve the revised teleworking policy with the correction; Karen Davis seconded.
There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.
Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.
7.5. Discuss Summer Reading Program software
Stephen Hedges shared an email he had received asking if OPLIN would be interested in hosting ReadingRecord software for libraries; ReadingRecord is an open source web-based application for libraries to track Summer Reading Program participants. Stephen pointed out that the Summer Reading Program is coordinated by the State Library, but OPLIN could work with the State Library on hosting this software if the State Library had any interest.
Board members were skeptical as to how much interest there would be among public libraries, since ReadingRecord would not replace all of the functionality of the popular Evanced products. Doug Evans suggested that feedback on this idea could be collected at the upcoming mid-sized library directors meeting, and Stephen agreed.
7.6. Approve expenditure for network protection solution
Stephen Hedges pointed out that acquisition of a network protection solution had already been approved at the last meeting, but he only recently received three quotes from vendors and decided to take the opportunity to again get Board approval, now that the costs were known. Since the quotes are from State Term Schedule vendors, no bid process is necessary.
Karl Jendretzky reported that he has been able to test the solution for several weeks and is very pleased with the performance. Both Stephen and Karl again cautioned that the solution would not completely stop a very large and sustained attack, but seems to handle "normal" attacks with no problem.
Karen Davis motioned to approve the expenditure for a network protection solution; Marty Beets seconded.
Karl Jendretzky explained the procedure for completing the implementation of the solution.
There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.
Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.
7.7. Approve 2015 OLC Convention sponsorship
Stephen Hedges noted that this request arrived after the draft meeting agenda had been distributed to the Board. The Ohio Library Council requests OPLIN Platinum Sponsorship of the Wi-Fi at the 2015 OLC Convention in Cincinnati. Stephen reviewed the history of OPLIN sponsorship of OLC conventions; OPLIN was most recently a $10,000 Platinum sponsor of the 2014 Convention, covering the cost of the Wi-Fi.
Susan Brown motioned to sponsor the 2015 OLC Convention in Cincinnati at the $10,000 Platinum level; Cindy Lombardo seconded.
Doug Evans informed the Board that the 2016 convention would once again be at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, where Wi-Fi is provided at no additional charge.
There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote; all aye.
Doug Evans thanked the Board for their support. Stephen Hedges noted that OPLIN receives not only widespread recognition for its support, but also free exposition booth space, space for the Stakeholders Meeting, and space for the OPLIN Board meeting.
8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Stephen Hedges reported on contact between several Ohio organizations involved in digitization, including the Digitization Hubs, and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). DPLA wants all Ohio to work together and coordinate one connection to the DPLA. DPLA has just inaugurated an application process, so efforts are underway to organize a meeting of interested Ohio groups. He also shared his experiences as a panelist on a webinar sponsored by the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) on broadband in American libraries. Finally, he reported on the progress of the E-rate workshops for libraries conducted by Lorrie Germann.
Stephen noted that he is interested in also providing a webinar for libraries on managed Wi-Fi, a point of emphasis in the new E-rate funding rules and a good way to gather valuable data, but he is reluctant to ask a commercial vendor to do such an informational webinar. He has, however, been in touch with a non-profit that supports managed Wi-Fi in schools, and asked how the Board would feel about sponsoring a webinar done by such a group. The Board felt this would be appropriate only so long as the content of the webinar focused on information rather than a promotion of the group's services.
Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Laura's online speaking engagements with a University of Illinois class and the Napa County (California) Library, his presentation to the Library Administrators Discussion Group, and his attendance at the final Connect Ohio Technology Association meeting.
8.1. Technology Projects Manager report
Karl Jendretzky reported that he and the OPLIN Support Center entered 140 orders in late November for upgrades to library circuits, meaning there are now about 180 active orders in process. Some of those orders are delayed by communication problems between the vendors, OIT, and OARnet. Karl also reported that some libraries have expressed interest in acquiring VoIP telephone service through the State, but OIT and OARnet have not agreed on how to implement the service within the OPLIN network.
Karl provided a status report on some other OPLIN services. A few new customers have recently requested OpenDNS service, bringing the total to about 100. He has been doing some work to optimize the SMS gateway, in anticipation of a large new customer; year-to-date, about half a million text messages have been sent to patrons through the gateway.
Karl has also been improving some in-house systems. The backup procedures have been revised following the problem encountered with the Drupal backups. The ticketing system used by OPLIN Support to track issues has been rebuilt.
Finally, Karl noted that peak core bandwidth use to the Internet is now just over 4 Gbps, with 10 Gbps available. He already has plans for upgrading the 10 Gbps connection, though that probably will not be needed for at least a year.
8.2. Library Services Manager report
Laura Solomon had nothing further to report beyond what had already been discussed earlier in the meeting.
8.3. Database usage
Stephen Hedges reported that database usage continues to total about 20% less than last year. He paticipated in a discussion at the State Library about encouraging libraries to use database discovery services in their online catalogs; to the best of his knowledge only 26 libraries currently subscribe to such a service. Stephen also noted that he will be doing programs about the Ohio Web Library at all but one of the OLC Chapter Conferences next spring.
9. VICE-CHAIR'S REPORT
The Vice-Chair reminded the Board that the next meeting will be held on Friday, February 13 at the OPLIN office.
Doug Evans shared breaking news from the legislature, which had just passed the sales tax holiday bill, now estimated to reduce the Public Library Fund by about $500,000 next fall. OLC will be doing a webinar on legislative advocacy on January 20.
10. ADJOURNMENT
On motion of Cindy Lombardo and second of Ben Chinni the Board adjourned at 11:48 a.m.