SCLS Home Committees Home PLAC Home Search

Public Library Advisory Committee (PLAC)
Minutes

Thursday, February 5, 2009
SCLS Administration

Present: Allen, Bauman, Brewer, Calef, Davis, Friesen, Gerber, Heidenreich, Jensen, Lee, Macdonald,
Morrill, Stack, Westby

CALL TO ORDER:  B. Stack called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

CHANGES/ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: None

Introduction of new members: The group members introduced themselves.  Five new members were present:  Darla Allen, Hilary Bauman, Demita Gerber, Peggy Heidenreich, and Pamela Westby.

Election of chair/vice-chair:  Bob Stack was elected Chair, Carolyn Shaffer was elected Vice-Chair.

MINUTES: The December 4, 2008 minutes were approved.

SCLS REPORT:

The core list of functionality that needs to be developed before we can implement Koha has been completed.  We have a draft contract proposal to present to our lawyer and after we incorporate his suggestions, we will be ready to send the contract to LibLime for their reaction.

The Technology planning committee held their last meeting and a big thanks goes to the those on the committee.  The library members have developed a companion piece to the “staff strategies” that will be discussed at the annual meeting in April, after getting feedback from library staff and from committees like PLAC. 

The LINK Governance Task Force, which consists of the LINK Long-Range Planning Committee, specific SCLS staff, a “new” director, Pamela Westby, and Julie Chase, who was involved with writing the last agreement and bylaws, met and decided to prepare a matrix of various decision making models to determine how issues would be handled in certain scenarios.  They hope to have the matrix ready by the April LINK meeting and hold a facilitated discussion session that would include all SCLS libraries (LINK and prospective members), separate from the LINK meeting in May.  The Russells will be the facilitators.

OCLC continues to work on their new partnership agreement and policy on ownership of bibliographic records.  The relationship between WiLS and OCLC will be changing.  WiLS is developing services they can offer to full members outside of OCLC services, but there are still some unanswered questions about the cost of that membership.  More information should be coming out soon from both OCLC and WiLS.

At the SRLAAW meeting there was more discussion of Act 420 and the system role, but we have no plans to change what we are doing at SCLS.  As a cost reductive move, DLTCL will not be printing the Library Service Record or the Directory of Libraries, but these publications will be available online.

The Governor’s budget will be presented on February 17th.  The theme is “staying even is the new increase”.  We have not determined if we met our goal of having 25% of our libraries represented at Library Legislative Day, but we think we were pretty close.

The annual report forms are still not ready and DLTCL is having a difficult time getting things fixed.  Cheryl Becker has requested that the member libraries send her paper copies of their annual report for review.  We will be working on the System annual report the weeks of February 9th and 16th.

The UW delivery contract expires at the end of 2009.  In a meeting with the folks at the UW System, we indicated we would like to continue as the designated “sole source” for their delivery, but there is bureaucracy that will need to be worked through and the UW System does not have a director of procurement right now.  Bruce Smith is working on adding a fuel surcharge into the new contract to help protect against future fuel price increases.

The Trustee Update was mailed to the system trustees.

LaValle has decided to build a 2400 sq. ft. addition to the current transportation building to house the library and the village clerk.  Brodhead will be moving into their new library in March.

ALA has requested SCLS create a focus group of libraries that are successful and innovative with technology.  Phyllis will be contacting libraries that fit that category to ask if they would be interested in participating.

Stef noted that we have received RFP responses from several facilities and we have narrowed down the choices available for possibilities of a new facility.  The SCLS Board Facilities committee will be touring the final choices and we hope to have a decision by the end of the month, with a signed lease by April.

There are two Gates grants in the works.  One is a broadband package, but we don’t know if Wisconsin will be an eligible state.   Bob Bocher is collecting information and may be contacting libraries directly to ask about information not known, such as how much libraries are paying for their secondary internet connection.  With regard to the computer grants, DLTCL will receive a list of final eligibility by March 2.  Libraries must decide if they want to participate by March 27th and there will be specific qualifications involved.  They will have to attend a two-day advocacy training, provide 25% match in 2010 and a 50% match in 2011.  System funds or LINK payments will not count toward the match.  They will also have to do the ALA technology survey, partial awards will not be accepted, and money will go to the libraries the 1st quarter of 2010 and 2011.  The system will be sending reminders, cutting checks, purchasing/configuring/installing PCs and running TechAtlas two more times in the next two years.

The annual meeting will be held April 17th.  A draft agenda has been created with the theme being customer service, and will go to the committee next week for review.  Registration will be available in the next couple of weeks.   

SCLS staff completed their 2008 library visits and learned so much!!  Stef will be writing a report about what staff saw as trends in libraries.  The libraries that were not visited in 2008 are a priority for 2009 and staff are already picking out the libraries they will be visiting and preparing materials. 

The TechBits blog was launched this week, with the goal to share more information about technology.   Everyone is encouraged to check it out and comment by the end of the month to get into a drawing to win a prize.

We have decided to move away from OPAL and use GoToMeeting (which is used for smaller groups in a meeting situation) and GoToWebinar (which is used for larger groups in a CE situation).  These products are working very well and the price is very good!

Committee Reports:

Joint Technology:  Cancelled the January meeting, but posed some questions to the group about publicizing and promoting online resources.  Mark Ibach is working on a pilot project that would involve libraries willing to participate in a variety of activities in the following areas:  In-library promotion (fliers, signs, programs), one-on-one promotion (upsell in library, city meetings), promotion beyond the library (media, community groups), and staff comfort (training, time to play).  SCLS will provide materials, including presentations, press releases, etc.

Interlibrary Loan Committee: Met in January.  Madison is working on the ILLiad transition.  Two training sessions were held and a recording of the sessions will also be available.  The start date is February 18th and the new term for interlibrary loan is “outerlibrary loan”.  On February 17th, no requests should be placed within WorldCat after 3 p.m.

The committee also discussed an issue related to ILL ptypes in LINK and self-renewal.  According to LINK policy, no ILL ptypes should be able to do self-renewal, but the non-LINK libraries have been doing this for a long time.  The issue will go to the LINK Circulation Services Committee to change the policy to reflect the existing practice.

Reference Committee: There will be one year of free access to Career Library from EBSCO.  WiLS is coordinating the first trial for us (Global Road Warrior) and will be doing the entirety of the process for us.  WiLS is also working on a group of Do It Yourself databases for the libraries, which includes small engine repair, hobbies and crafts, and home improvement.  After Chilton library went live in January, we heard from 12 libraries who wanted to be part of it, but hadn’t responded to the initial call for participation.  Access for those libraries should start soon.

Multitype: Richard MacDonald is the chair.  MALC scholarships were reviewed and discussed.  Two $250 scholarships will be awarded with a deadline of March 31.  The committee also discussed the future direction of MALC.  It was recommended they hold a ½ day annual meeting/continuing education event with a social activity such as lunch. 

Youth Services:  The “Much Ado About…. Summer Programming 2009” workshop was held 2/6/09. 

PR Committee: The following people volunteered to serve on the PR committee:  Jennifer Endres, Pam Bosben, Trish Priewe, Tana Elias, Mary Friesen, and Vicky Billings.  They will be working with Mark Ibach on a new campaign about “libraries changing lives”.  Thanks to those who volunteered!!

Delivery Advisory Committee:  Did not meet.

 OTHER BUSINESS:

1. Subscription databases - Rural residents and payment formula:  The system has decided to pick up the difference in cost for rural residents in counties without county libraries or library services to access the Chiltons and ReferenceUSA databases this year.  Decisions need to be made regarding how rural residents will receive access and who will pay for it in the future.  The database costs have been based on operating expenditures, but because not every library will be participating in all database purchases, that will not continue to work.  PLAC decided to create a subcommittee to discuss ideas, resolve issues and find solutions to these problems.  P. Heidenreich, H. Jensen, B. Brewer and R. McCabe volunteered to serve on that committee.
   
2. Review of membership agreement:  The membership agreement needs to be reviewed every year and PLAC gave it the ok.
   
3. Review of County agreement and memo:  It has been about 10 years since the counties in the system have signed this agreement and PLAC agreed it would be a good policy to reissue the agreements, along with a copy of the previously signed agreement, to update our records.  No changes have been made to the agreement and SCLS will send a copy to each of the County Clerks.
   
4. 2009 Discussion topics:  Stef asked PLAC members to send her 2 ideas for discussion topics by the end of February.  The list will be presented to PLAC in March to choose which topics they would like to discuss during the year.
   
5. 2009 PLAC meeting schedule:  PLAC will NOT meet in May or July.  Stef will email the 2009 meeting schedule to PLAC.
   
6. Changing “too new to request” time period:  This topic originated from the ILL committee.  They would like the policy changed from 4 months to 6 months.  The question was raised regarding how to determine the age of a title when requesting for ILL.  Stef will send an email with the official guidelines and protocols.  PLAC decided to speak with their library staff, Stef will be checking with Madison Public Library, and this topic will come back to PLAC for more discussion in March.
   
7. 2008 SCID/SCILL report:  After some discussion and time constraints, PLAC decided to put this topic on the agenda for March.

Potpourri:

Meeting adjourned at 11:57 a.m.                             

The next meeting will be March 5, 2009

Heidi Moe, Recorder

For more information about the Public Library Advisory Committee, contact Heidi Moe.

SCLS Home | Committees Home | PLAC Home