Sage Council Meeting
September 18, 2018
Attendees: Ann Zuehlke (Hood River HS), Dea Nowell(UCSLD), Mark Rose (Hermiston Public), Perry Stokes (Baker), Ryan McGinnis (La Grande, chair), Marsha Richmond (KFCC), Mary Finney (Pendleton Public), Beth Ross (Sage)
Approval of July 2018 minutes – Postponed until quorum reached.
Vice-Chair Selection – nominations requested. Mark Rose willing to be vice-chair if Beth does minutes. Ryan plans on doing a vote by email for election of vice-chair since we do not have a quorum present
Committee Meetings
Cataloging Committee – the committee met August 6 and Jon Georg facilitated the meeting. There were updates on some of the projects that the mentors have been working on, as well as other cataloging updates. The next meeting will be the first of October. The mentors met a couple of times, August 2 and September 6. One of the items that they have working on is Read Along Book with CDs and they hope to have some training toward the end of October. They have been talking about series consistency and hope to have documentation out soon. Also started talking about subject headings, search issues.
Circulation Committee – the committee met last week. Seeking a chair for that committee. They are continuing to have discussion on lost in transit policy, damaged policy, trying to formalize it such that it is easy for libraries to take care of it. Looking at a form that can be filled out online, looking at reports that can be run to identify items. Working on getting caught up with minutes and web site updated. This committee has been meeting every month but that could change depending on participation.
Budget Committee – committee not meeting yet but Perry shared financial report. Have sufficient cash balance to operate until membership fees come in.
Courier Committee – met last week. They discussed the new drop site at BMCC. This drop site was necessitated by the fact that the IMESD is just a warehouse and does not have computers or staff there to create labels. Last year BMCC was creating the labels and shuttling the materials back to the IMESD for pickup. This year they were unable to shuttle materials and another solution had to be found. Beth did cost analysis and figured out that it was cheaper to add a 2-day/week Orbis drop site. The drop site is now in operation and going well. There are documents on web site that need to be updated. Packaging needs were also discussed. The DVD boxes (bigger ones) and audiobook boxes are not holding up as well. Need to be filling with packaging material so there is more support. Looking at whether we need to order more and whether we have the optimal sizes.
Strategic Planning Committee – did not meet
New Business
Delinquent accounts – Two accounts were very late in being paid this last year. Question – what happens when we have members that do not pay. The bylaws say – section 5 – members who fail to pay their bill by the following year’s billing cycle shall no longer be considered members of the Sage Library System. Perry was thinking that we could adjust that, establishing a separate financial policy. Typically, after a certain period of non-payment services are either terminated or late charges applied. Six months out a penalty could be assessed, a percentage of their invoice – 1%-2% for each 30 days late. If still unpaid at the next year’s billing cycle an invoice with the outstanding balance plus the current year’s charge could be sent. If still unpaid after 60 days their membership could be terminated. Mark – What are impacts of this? Perry- Their access to Evergreen would be terminated. Beth – Disabling logins is a quick action, removing records takes a little longer. Mary – Interlibrary loan is an issue for items that are out. Beth – assessment of this situation is that it stemmed from a communication breakdown. Emails were going to library staff but forwarded invoices were not reaching the billing staff. She needs to change procedures when invoices are outstanding after a certain amount of time. After 60 days need to get on the phone with someone rather than relying on email. May have to send paper invoices in some cases. Perry – If no payment has been received within 6 months, both a phone call should be made and a paper invoice sent. Dea – Do we need to set up a written policy? Mary – need to have a finite time after which services are terminated. If termination occurs – should consider pro-rated charge. Beth will draft a financial policy document for review.
Replacement academic library representative – Marsha Richmond is now the Library Program Specialist at Klamath Community College and is willing to be the representative. Cannot vote on it without a quorum.
Evergreen update – Jon and Beth have been working on getting servers ready for upgrade and ran into some issues. Upgrade currently scheduled for October 10 but would like to postpone to allow for more preparation time. Recommend moving upgrade to November. There are some significant changes, especially with the availability of the web client. Would have to get a different date from Equinox. Dea – Training is critical. General agreement was voiced for postponing upgrade.
When Brent was able to do the upgrade we had more flexibility to schedule upgrades during downtimes. Equinox does the upgrade typically on a Wednesday so that there is plenty of time during the normal business week to address issues. Equinox has some training that Beth and Jon could participate in to learn how to do the upgrades, at least with minor upgrades. Will need to get a cost on that training. This upgrade is being done by Equinox with support hours we purchased this fiscal year, 10 hours @ $250/hour or $2500. Building capacity within our ranks is a good thing. Once upgrade is done, Beth can ask for a quote and a determination can be made on pursuing the upgrade training. Jon has been working on learning the upgrade process with our test server as a starting point.
Mary – How different will this upgrade be? Beth – Staff functions be recognizable. The nice thing about this upgrade is that both the staff client and web client will be available so staff are not forced to use web client right away. Can learn the web client over time. Wanted to do trainings to familiarize staff and lessen concern. Patrons should not be impacted at all.
Other business – Perry – Was something sent out about the results of the council membership vote? Should be recorded in minutes. Email vote was done but nothing was stated in minutes. We can add to July minutes since they are in draft form. Can put in brackets if not addressed in meeting itself.
Additional discussion took place on the impact of downtime for the upgrade. Library2Go services and database access for colleges will be impacted because of authentication thru Sage. Libraries can use offline circulation during the downtime for checkouts. It is recommended that check-ins be done after coming back up so that holds processing can occur. Sending out a reminder on this will be helpful.
Meeting adjourned.