Sage Library System Council
Minutes of the Meeting held on the 20th of March 2007
Attendance: Karen Clay, Beth Longwell, Kim Tally, Louise Weeks, Aletha Bonebrake, Marsha Richmond, Jackie Redinger, Jo Cowling; via video: Pat Patla, Mary Finney, Ken Reading, Jolyn Wynn; via phone: Marie Baldo.
Council Chair Marsha Richmond called meeting to order at 9:20 A.M.
1. Agenda Review – Add 10. Downloadable Audio Books
2. Approval of January Minutes – Accept as is.
3. Committee Reports
a. Circulation Committee – Minutes posted on Web.
b. Catalog Committee – Reviewed the cataloging manual and codes changes. Katrina reviewing minutes before posting
4. Task Force Reports
a. Five Year Financial Plan –
i. Increase and broaden Sage participation – Umatilla Co. plans to bring all of its libraries online. Helix is up and Pilot Rock was brought on last month. Weston will be added this spring. They hope to have 9 out of 12 libraries online by the end of this year.
ii. Courier Stabilization – It is fairly stable at this time. The Oregonian courier will discontinue Ontario delivery as of April 1st. Beth is trying to figure out a service. Aletha thought we could possibly place an ad in newspaper. Beth has a phone call into Express Messenger out of the Tri-Cities, but no one has returned her call. Click’n’Ship would be the last resort. Another thought would be the Summit Courier (ORBIS). Check on the route-would Nyssa and Vale be included? Cost is about $450/month. The Courier Committee-Ken, Aletha, & now Karen-can look into this. They can share ideas via e-mail. The Oregonian was running everyday and we were dropped because they are handling papers differently. The courier Aletha spoke of out of Baker City that made the loop to Huntington and Halfway, no longer appears to be in business. She couldn’t locate it. It would need to reach Ontario, Nyssa, Vale & Baker City. Malheur Co. was inquired about. The picture is looking more positive. They are open under limited hours, but they have paid their Sage subscription. Aletha thought there may be something on the May Ballot.
b. Resource sharing – We had a record high last month as far as ILLs. A lot of Ship’n’Click activity. Beth had to request an increase for the credit card limit-it was $2500.
Old Business
5. Self – Checkout – The Software is installed on the server with the ability to test on the sites. Specific logins will be used at the check out stations. Both sites-Pendleton Public and Hermiston Public-will test. They are considering using touch screens. There is a positive response to touch screens. It does not take different software, just a monitor. Our PINs are alpha-numeric, so we would need a keyboard. One monitor that was looked at was $400. An important question to ask is how fast the public will beat up the equipment. We will need user education on how to treat the equipment! It could and would be located near the desk to minimize abuse.
6. Sage Budget – Are there any questions or concerns? How much more is maintenance on self-checkout? An individual would be $90/month. $5800 would be server software which would be divided by the number of users. There is a $32/month dedicated license fee per site: $348 minimum. Maintenance won’t start until next March.
Baker adding Sumpter this summer. Also adding just a computer with no books at Unity (no charge because no books). Probably losing some sites next year. Heppner and Riverside High Schools have paid this year but not looking to renew. Wallowa High School and Wallowa Public also. It seems to be a budget thing and they feel service is not being utilized. They have their own circulation systems. There was a question regarding migration of La Grande schools to Sage circulation. Beth responded not yet. Should Beth send the budget link to all Sage System Libraries? Yes. Send out in the listserve. We usually adopt budget in May. In the future we should have the figures in February and vote on the budget in March.
7. Patron Initiated Holds: maintain system selection or return to patron selection (voting issue) – Advantages of Sage System placing hold vs. Patron placing hold. The system can be cost effective. You MIGHT get the item sooner. Disadvantages are that patron can’t place hold on local copy even if it’s due in a couple of days. It is driving up our costs. When Library scoped, patron can only see a particular collection. They often think they are requesting from their own library, but the hold is going to the highest priority library based on availability and location. General reaction is to go back to item selected holds. Will need to add verbiage on the items selection page that explains how to choose a library close to you. We needed to try the systems hold, but with us having different courier system and patrons, it is not efficient for us. Aletha made a motion with Jo 2nd to revert back to patron selection. Passed unanimously.
New Business
8. Spell Check in the Sage Catalog -The cost of this product is $1850, with maintenance about $18.50/month. EOU will pay the initial fee as they have a credit. The Spell Check is like the one in Google search. It would ask: “Do you mean…” with the suggested wording, only checking what you type in. This is ONLY on Patron access computers, not in cataloging-WebOPAC. Consensus okay with this.
9. WebOPAC enhancements (Amazon Reviews, holding display) – examples to follow-Amazon Reviews – Beth trying to get it to open into a new window. This would keep the original catalog record behind it. If she can’t, do we still want to go forward? Synthetics has a review program. Ballpark figure might be less than $2000. An issue for the public terminals is will patrons then be using the new window to go out on the Web. Kim Tally mentioned that from a school perspective she’s not worried about it, but concerned about cost. Should we test it? If we don’t buy school module from Synthetic, the schools won’t have to pay. Beth will get additional quotes and report back. Holding displays have been enhanced to display sites where copies are available to check out.
10. Downloadable Audio Books – Oregon Digital Library Consortium (ODLC) contracted with Overdrive and put out notice that invited libraries into the consortium for a fee. This is for the whole Sage System. Baker has offered to pay this fee, but will welcome any sites wishing to join them and share the fee. The tiered fee is based upon population served. Subscription works with the entire Overdrive database It restricts loans to their patrons only and downloads to patron’s computer or MP3 player. Patron then has two weeks to listen to the e-book. There are 9,000 titles available and after two weeks the file self-destructs. Kim asked if a catalog is available. Aletha will call and ask about sharing of the yearly cost. One deficit is that it is not Mac compatible, including iPods. Potentially this service could become available in July.
Meeting adjourned at 10:50 am. Next meeting will be on May 22, 2007.