October 8, 2010 Minutes

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

Minutes—October
8, 2010

1.
WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-second
meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 8, 2010 by Board Chair Sandi
Plymire at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members:
Don Barlow, Gary Branson, Jason Buydos, Karen Davis, Jim Kenzig, Jamie
Mason, Sandi Plymire, and Jeff Wale.

Also present were: Stephen
Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and
Diane Fink (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio
Library Council).

2.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Sandi Plymire requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jason Buydos motioned to
approve the agenda as presented; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

3.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair recognized Beverly Cain.

Beverly announced that Jeffrey Trzeciak, currently at
McMaster
University in Ontario, will start his duties as the new director of
OhioLINK on December 13. She noted that he has a background in Ohio,
having worked for the Dayton library and been a presenter at an OLC
conference. Beverly also reported that the last State Library Board
meeting awarded LSTA large-project grants, with interesting
presentations from the grant recipients. Stephen Hedges mentioned that
the State Library Board also appointed Karen Davis to the OPLIN Board;
Sandi Plymire welcomed Karen to the Board.

The Chair next recognized Doug Evans.

Doug reported that the OLC Board continues to work on a
revised
strategic plan, with the intention of completing their work at their
November meeting.

4.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
of August 13 Meeting

Jeff Wale motioned to
approve the minutes of the August 13 meeting; Jamie Mason
seconded. All aye.

5.
ACCEPTANCE OF THE
FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented two sets of Financial Reports: one as of
September
30, 2010; the second the proposed Fiscal Years 2012-13 budget.

5.1. Reports as of September
30

Report A in the September 30 set of reports showed the
budget and expenditures at the end of Fiscal Year 2010 and the first
quarter of Fiscal Year 2011. A couple of FY 2010 purchase orders still
have small balances as we await invoices from the vendors; one large
purchase order to the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for the
new Juniper routers also is awaiting an invoice. The total "available
balance" of $468,699 represents the unused portion of OPLIN's $2
million spending authority for non-state income.

Looking
at the FY 2011 budget, Diane pointed out the purchase cost of the new
e-mail server and noted that OPLIN has also asked OIT for permission to
purchase four new desktop computers to replace 7-year-old computers.
Regarding information resources, Diane reported that all fiscal year
funds going toward purchase of the information databases has been
distributed to Wright State University for eventual dispersal to
vendors. She also noted that OPLIN continues to contract with eTech
Ohio for E-Rate services and workshops. The unplanned spending
authority for unexpected non-state revenues currently stands at
$426,385.

Report B showed the
revenue and cash balances for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011. The $1.3
million cash balance at the end of FY 2010 rolled over to FY 2011.
Shortly after the beginning of FY 2011 a transfer of $3.7 million was
made from the Public Library Fund (PLF) to OPLIN; simultaneously, the
Office of Budget and Management (OBM) transferred $5 million from the
General Revenue Fund (GRF) to the PLF to cover the deductions for OPLIN
and the Library for the Blind. After adding some revenue from received
E-Rate reimbursements and web services for libraries, and deducting
expenditures to date, the cash balance now stands at about $2.9 million.

Jeff
Wale asked about the status of the OPLIN appeal of our denied 2005-2006
E-Rate reimbursements; Stephen Hedges reported that the Funding
Commitment Decision Letters have now been received and OPLIN is in the
process of submitting invoices for the previously denied funds.

5.2. Proposed FY 2012-13
budget

Diane
reported that OBM has asked that "core
budget level" requests be submitted by November 1 at 5:00 p.m; the
OPLIN budget will be submitted as a "program" within the State
Library budget.
The Core Budget Level for agencies receiving GRF
funds is to be 90% of their FY 2011 budget; agencies such as OPLIN that
receive funding from other sources are not restricted. Diane reported
that the required State Library IT plan for OIT, which is part of the
overall budget submission and includes OPLIN IT planned expenditures,
was submitted on October 4. The November 2 election will determine the
timeline for the remainder of the budget process; if the current
Governor is re-elected, the Executive Budget will be released around
February 1, otherwise it will not be released until March.

Diane
presented the current version of the OPLIN budget that will be
submitted on November 1. She pointed out that payroll
budgeting increases noticeably for FY 2012, when Cost Savings Days are
scheduled to end, all state employees are scheduled to receive a
lump-sum payment for 32 hours salary, and an extra pay cycle falls
within the fiscal year. The Department of Administrative Services (DAS)
has
also advised OPLIN to budget for a small rent increase, since a large
decrease was negotiated at the beginning of the current biennium. The
budget also includes funds for a replacement server each year of the
biennium. In all other expenditure categories, the amounts budgeted
remain the same as the current budget. The projected revenue budget for
the current fiscal year includes an estimated E-Rate reimbursement of
$1 million from the successful appeal of the 2005-2006 E-Rate denial,
as well as $1.3 million for this year's E-Rate reimbursements and
$10,00 from web services; for the next biennium, the budget projects
that the $1.3 million and $10,000 income will continue each year.

Jeff
Wale inquired about the stability of the E-Rate reimbursements in the
future. Stephen Hedges replied that the FCC's Sixth Order, which was
released on September 28, contained some language that could possibily
be interpreted to mean that E-Rate reimbursements for
telecommunications expenses should be limited to libraries that are
CIPA compliant, which would reduce the amount of reimbursement OPLIN
receives. Stephen has discussed this with Lorrie Germann from eTech,
but at this point no one is certain how the FCC language is going to be
interpreted.

Gary Branson motioned to
accept the Financial Reports; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Final focus group report

Stephen Hedges reported that OPLIN staff gathered a lot of
good feedback from the library community at the OLC Expo on September
10, starting with the Stakeholders Meeting, then through
individual conversations at the OPLIN booth, and finally from a small
focus group conducted by Wayne Piper. The information gained from this
final focus group was similar to what we received from e-mail questions
and the previous online focus group, with the addition of feedback
indicating that some libraries would like to have more communication
from OPLIN about the status of their Internet connections. Stephen said
he plans to start automatically sending results of our quarterly
bandwidth usage assessment to all libraries in order to address this
concern. Focus group participants also voiced concerns about the
struggles libraries are having with providing e-books to patrons,
though they did not see this as an OPLIN problem. (This prompted a
brief discussion among those present about e-book problems and future
plans.)

Now that the focus groups are finished, Stephen reported that
he had no recommendations for further Board action. He noted that the
Board had already authorized the purchase of a new e-mail server and
replacement of the current e-mail software in response to focus group
feedback. Staff have made other small changes in response to feedback.
There was one piece of consistent feedback which the Board does not
have the financial means to address, that is the desire to have
genealogy and auto repair databases in the Ohio Web Library collection;
however, focus group participants all seemed to understand that this is
currently beyond OPLIN's means.

6.2. Award first round of
Internet filtering assistance grants

Stephen Hedges presented the first round of applications for
OPLIN grants to
assist libraries with the cost of installing new or improved Internet
content filters which were
collected online between August 26 and October 1. He recommended that
the following requests, totaling $27,604.11, be funded:

Library	Request	Award
Licking County Library	New Cymphonix filtering solution to provide content filtering at all six Licking County Library locations	$3,835.00
Napoleon Public Library	New install of Website-Echo content filter for 39 staff and patron PCs	$2,315.75
Bristol Public Library	New Websense filtering software and server	$1,543.00
Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library	Add SonicWall Security appliance for children's areas at the Main library and Northside Branch	$1,496.21
Logan County Libraries	Replace End of Life filtering server with Cymphonix EX310H	$4,232.15
Pickerington Public Library	Replace R3000 filter appliance with WF300	$3,122.00
Fairfield County District Library	Replace R3000 8e6 filter appliances at the Main Library and Northwest Branch that will be End of Life in January 2011	$4,500.00
Nelsonville Public Library	Replace SonicWall with OpenDNS Enterprise content filtering service	$1,350.00
Lane Public Library	Upgrade from free version to Enterprise version of OpenDNS	$1,600.00
Rodman Public Library	Upgrade to SonicWall NSA 2400 Secure	$3,610.00

Stephen also recommended that OPLIN announce a second
round of funding with applications due December 1. The second round
would be for all types of applications, with new and improved
installations still getting top priority. The second round would
distribute the remaining funds in our filtering earmark, which will
currently be $53,395.89 after these awards are distributed.

Jim Kenzig motioned to
approve the recommended filtering assistance grants and proceed with a
second round
of grant applications; Jeff Wale seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Karen
Davis, aye; Jim Kenzig, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Jeff Wale, aye; and
Sandi Plymire, aye.

7.
NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss connections to
libraries that consolidate

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that there has been
increased discussion lately regarding consolidating library systems and
he felt it was a good time to start discussing what happens to the
OPLIN-provided Internet connection if one library decides to merge with
another. The current OPLIN policy provides for only one connection per
OPLIN participant.

The Board quickly came to a concensus that OPLIN should
disconnect its Internet connection from a library system that becomes a
part of another system. Further discussion raised questions about the
timing of the disconnection, since it could require some considerable
time for a local library to have their own Internet connection
installed to replace the OPLIN connection. There was also brief
discussion of the cost to OPLIN resulting from contract penalties when
a circuit is disconnected, as well as costs from likely circuit
upgrades after libraries merge.

Jason Buydos motioned that
OPLIN must disconnect the OPLIN-provided Internet connection in the
event that an OPLIN participant merges with another, but OPLIN will
maintain the existing connection for a period of 90 days after the
effective date of the merger or consolidation. Don Barlow seconded.

Jeff Wale questioned if 90 days was long enough; Jim Kenzig
suggested that a library could place a request with the OPLIN Board for
an additional 90-day extension if needed.

Jason Buydos amended his
motion to include a provision to maintain the connection for an
additional 90 days upon library request to the OPLIN Board. Don Barlow
agreed to the amendment.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Karen
Davis, aye; Jim Kenzig, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Jeff Wale, aye; and
Sandi Plymire, aye.

8.
OPLIN DIRECTOR'S
REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that there was considerable interest
at the Stakeholders Meeting in the transition to Zimbra software on the
OPLIN e-mail server. Later in the day, at the OPLIN booth at the OLC
Expo, many of the individual conversations were about the OPLIN SMS
messaging service for libraries.

Stephen reported on the October 1 Connect Ohio Technology
Association meeting and the subsequent information session for
potential partners in Connect Ohio's Every Community Online (ECO) ARRA
grant. This is the grant originally identified as OPAL II because it
was paired with the OPAL I
grant from the State Library, which was not funded; the State Library
received the official rejection letter yesterday. Stephen mentioned
that he is making contact with the major organizations that received
ARRA grants (Com Net,Horizon Telco, OneCommunity, and Zito
Media) for installing additional fiber-optic circuits around
the state, since those grants encourage connections to libraries.

Stephen
called Board attention to the presentations Laura Solomon did for
TechConnections and the University of Hawaii, and Karl Jendretzky's
after-hours move of critical OPLIN servers from the OPLIN office to the State of Ohio
Computer Center (SOCC).

Finally, Stephen mentioned a meeting he
and Doug Evans attended with Telisys, a telecommunications consulting
company that hopes to make its services available through the Sourcing
Office in Northeast Ohio.

8.1.
Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on the process of moving the servers
to the
SOCC, which was made possible by a larger project to consolidate old routers
into the new Juniper router while securing a larger connection from the
OPLIN core to the Internet. When complete, this project will be a major
change for the OPLIN core and will provide access to 3 Gbps of Internet
access instead of our current 1 Gbps.

Karl reported on problems
he has encountered with the open source Zimbra software. The current
open source version fails under extreme loads, but the commercial
version does not. It appears that the open source Zimbra is usually one
version behind the commercial version, so he is investigating the cost
of the commercial version; if it is excessive, he expects to be able to
test the next open source version in a couple of months. The Board then
discussed approving an expenditure limit for commercial e-mail software
(Zimbra or another), but since such a purchase would have to go through
the state approval process, there will be time to consider a specific
proposal if necessary. Jeff Wale cautioned that Karl's work time should
be considered when comparing open source to commercial software.

In
the process of working on an Ohio Web Library phone app at Stephen's
request, Karl developed an Ohio Web Library API that can deliver the
search results in an XML format that can be included in any webpage. He
shared the screenshot of a sample of this API which has been installed
on the Stow-Monroe Falls library website and integrates Ohio Web
Library search results with Stow catalog search results. This feature
will be integrated into future Dynamic Website Kits.

Finally,
Karl shared usage statistics for the SMS messaging service. Usage
growth has been consistent, now reaching more than 150 messages a day,
and more libraries are using it all the time. The system has been
operating very smoothly; Karl calculates it could handle up to 12,000
messages a day.

8.2. Library Services
Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that twenty Website Kits are now in
active
use by libraries; nine more are at the stage where libraries are
entering their initial content; and four are currently in development.
In November all development work will temporarily cease while Laura
upgrades the Drupal version 5 sites to Drupal version 6. The Ohio Web
Library API will be added to all kits, as well as Facebook and
Foursquare buttons and a module that allows site users to share
content they like with others.

Laura explained that the
University of Hawaii class she taught was done through Second Life.
Unfortunately, Linden Labs has just decided to double the cost of
Second Life participation for educational institutions and non-profits;
as a result many of these institutions will probably leave Second Life,
and OPLIN will not plan on being active in Second Life after the change.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges presented statistics of database usage. Jeff
Wale
asked if there was an explanation for the gradual decline in the number
of searches, and Stephen said he had none, but pointed out that
document retrievals were gradually increasing and are probably a better
measure of the value of the databases.