July 2, 2009 Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
1)Roll call – Carol Adams (VA), Devra Dragos (NEBASE), Jim Duncan (CO), Steve Gregory (CO), Deborah Littrell (TX), Sheryl Mase (MI), Bev Obert (IL), Michael Piper (INCOLSA), Jim Scheppke (OR), Ann Yurcaba (LYRASIS) minutes by Justine Shaffner (Collaborative Coordinator)
2)Approve 5/15 Plinkit Steering Committee minutes – Duncan asked if anyone was not in favor of approving them. No one spoke, so the minutes are approved.
3)Report on latest financial statements - Duncan said balance was $162,690, but he thinks we’ve paid a couple of Enfold bills recently, so he’ll check and email the group latest balance.
4)Brief reports from the states and organizations –
OR – Scheppke said they are still seeing interest from new libraries but think there will be a plateau ahead as they already have the all the likely libraries in the state, (though there are still some in the queue waiting to bring up their sites). Hanning has been working with Gregory on Enfold work and she upgraded the Plinkit website to Plone version 3.2 and she’s added the new logo and theme.
Duncan said the site looks really sharp, so please pass on our thanks to Hanning.
TX - Littrell said Stokes is away, but they are continuing to add more new libraries and have well over 100 sites now. They are actively planning for testing and transition to Plinkit 2.0. This will be more work than anticipated so they are looking to contract out this work.
IL - Obert said they added one library and lost one, but will wait until Plinkit 2.0 is finished and do a big push for more members at their fall state conference. They are actively doing user acceptance testing at the system level. At the end of May they brought all their system coordinators together to review their plans. The North Suburban System joined recently and their system coordinator hadn’t met anyone yet, so this helped to update her. Brown did some advanced training and explained what he did so the system coordinators can all go back and train their members. So they are in a holding pattern but are still busy.
VA - Adams said they are doing training for their pilot libraries. They have trained seven libraries so far and are continuing to do this.
MI - Mase said Norris is their Plinkit queen and their plan is to bring libraries on with Plinkit 2.0. They have a contract with Enfold for hosting and programming and some graphic work too. They have five pilot libraries signed up and ready to participate. These are the smallest libraries in MI and they will they will make up a state advisory group (plus one of their cooperative directors will be on this group too). All this will be approved by their state librarian. They have a procedure for new libraries where you submit an application to join so will follow the same procedure for Plinkit.
INCOLSA - Piper said they are working with pilot sites but are seeing little interest as many libraries think they have a website already (though their sites are really more like online brochures). They are still working with NEBASE and LYRASIS.
LYRASIS - Yurcaba said they had nothing really, except they are still working on the proposal for the PA State Library.
NEBASE - Dragos said they are working with one pilot library and have them signed up for training after Sauers goes to bootcamp this month.
Duncan asked if everyone is getting reimbursed correctly by BCR for Plone Boot Camp and said if you have any problems or questions ask Shaffner.
CO – Duncan said their new server will become the new Plinkit production server after the migration. The existing Plinkit server will become a development environment for Plinkit and other UNIX projects. He’s completing the business case planning for their expansion beyond public libraries and he will email this to the Steering Committee when it’s done. They are already hosting a non public library. Lots of libraries are asking about authentication which they had been doing via their ILSs, but since they now have a delivery platform, they are subscribing to the statewide database package. This is getting a little complicated so they are looking into rolling out an EZ Proxy solution (so if you’ve done this, please let him know about it).
5)Project Coordinators/Tech Group progress report – Gregory said they had elections for new chairs of both committees. Congratulations to Obert who was reelected as chair of the Project Coordinators committee and to Troy Brown (IL) who will be the chair of the Technical Group and will represent them at future Steering Committee meetings.
On the Plinkit 2.0 front, Krause-Thompson (TX), Norris, Hanning and Gregory are actively involved in user acceptance testing for milestone three (of five). When they sign off on this, a third invoice will be coming. So far everything is going well. They have identified some cosmetic issues (PSS stuff), but the basic functionality is holding up well. Scheppke asked when all the work will be done. Gregory thought maybe around the end of July/beginning of August. He said milestones four and five will go more quickly but this one is the crux of the work. Duncan asked if the group is satisfied with Enfold’s work and how the time line has gone. Gregory said they are satisfied that Enfold is working rapidly, but the original time estimate has been thrown out. Scheppke said so it will be important to remember for our next big project that things often take longer than estimated. Piper said maybe we should compile the lessons learned after this is over. Gregory said we can look at the timelines from the original contract as compared to the weekly status reports.
Obert said Norris sent a document to the committee about starting a mentoring program which they’ll be discussing at the next meeting so that program may also be in the works soon. Duncan said he’s a fan of mentoring, so this is fantastic.
Yurcaba had to step away to deal with air conditioning issues for a minute but will be back.
Duncan asked how the documentation is going. Obert said the group is looking at the documentation and identifying places that will need to be changed and/or updated. Hanning is talking to the person who did update the documentation last time and at the next meeting they may make some decisions about this. Gregory said Kreger has done a lot of updating and has been asking questions of the group and identifying sections that will need to be changed, which will make this update easier. Duncan said he thinks the users will be keenly interested in this update. Gregory said the preliminary documentation will be great for early adopter training. Littrell asked when the finished documentation would be available. Gregory will email Kreger to find out and let us know. Obert said it’s feasible that the User Manual will be ready to go at the same time Enfold completes their work on Plinkit 2.0. Duncan said thanks to all who are working so hard on this. He’s impressed it’s being done so fast.
6)Expansion of the Plinkit Collaborative -
a.Iowa - Scheppke talked to Wegner at a recent BCR board meeting and they are not interested at this time. The bottom line is that they are happy with the way things are working for them now. Shaffner will check in with them in a year. Duncan said it may be that they’ll be interested again once Plinkit 2.0 is done. Scheppke said he didn’t think so as the idea of transitioning over 300 libraries to something new is a little daunting to them.
b.SE Massachusetts Regional Library System – Shaffner spoke to Lussier on 6/29 and she said Roach had talked to their board and they are all in support of moving forward. They’ll probably be in touch with us over the summer, but if not, Shaffner will contact them 8/29.
Duncan asked if anyone else has seen inquiries from their peer groups. Scheppke said he hadn’t really brought it up and wondered what our attitude toward expansion is at this point. Are we still in growth mode or are we just trying to bring up the new states and organizations?
Yurcaba is back.
Duncan asked for other’s thoughts on expansion. Obert said it’d be good to get new members up to speed and once they are rolling out Plinkit in their states word will spread to other areas. If we bring SEMRLS in then the following year we can start soliciting for new members again. Mase said we didn’t really meet on bylaws, but some of these things may need a bylaw change… She questioned our statement at the web site re we are open to organizations with statewide influence and membership. Shaffner said updating this is an action item for her, Yurcaba, Scheppke and Piper (will now be Fipps since Piper is leaving INCOLSA - Piper will let Fipps know she’ll replace him). Duncan said he wouldn’t mind stabilizing things on the technological and organizational fronts before thoughtfully pursuing new members if that becomes a strategic goal. If we are contacted we will have discussions with potential new members, but we won’t aggressively go after any. Scheppke supports this. Piper said this sounds reasonable.
7)Proposal for INCOLSA, NEBASE and LYRASIS committee representation/fees
a)States LYRASIS proposes to cover
1)NELINET merger – state to cover?
Duncan needs to deal with a water issue so asked if someone can give background on this.
Yurcaba said she proposes a separate membership for LYRASIS which will include the former SOLINET and PALINET regions. She’s trying to get a sense of what role LYRASIS might play with their state libraries. Will they do Plinkit training, hosting and implementation help? They are still in an evaluative phase. Also NELINET (New England region) will join LYRASIS in the fall and that region would also be included. Scheppke asked if they’ve had any conversations with these state libraries. Yurcaba said they are working with PA to develop a proposal for them and their PALINET “legacy” states know about their Plinkit membership. LYRASIS’ proposal is only for this year as they aren’t sure how they’ll proceed after that.
Dragos said the INCOLSA/NEBASE proposal is also for the coming year as things could change at INCOLSA as Piper is leaving. They propose a joint membership (splitting the annual fee between them) as INCOLSA is hosting for them this year, but they only expect one vote on each committee. They would like to have two representatives (one each from INCOLSA and NEBASE) on each committee so they can stay informed though. Any reimbursements (e.g. for Plone Boot Camp) would be split between them. Everyone said that this sounds reasonable. Obert said sounds like a good solution.
Scheppke moved that we approve these proposals from LYRASIS and INCOLSA/NEBASE for the current fiscal year. Littrell seconded the motion. No one was against it so the motion was passed.
Shaffner asked if she should add all the LYRASIS states to the Contact Form at http://www.plinkit.org/contact-info telling them to contact LYRASIS. Adams said leave off VA. When NELINET joins add those states but first ask the Steering Committee if MA should be listed as SEMRLS may want to join on their own. Mase wondered if we should communicate with these state libraries before saying that libraries from these states should contact LYRASIS. Shaffner will say contact LYRASIS or your state library if interested in becoming a Plinkit site.
Duncan is back.
8)Strategic Plan – Duncan and Obert said they need to get the time to work on this. Obert has sent Duncan a plan. She thinks they’ll get to it in the next couple of months and that they’ll be able to bring a plan forward when we meet in September. Shaffner will remind them every two weeks.
9)Plinkit logo: discussion of use by member organizations - There’s been some confusion re accepting the logo designed by TX. Duncan said CO’s intention is to adopt that logo but they haven’t decided on colors or put it on the CO Plinkit site and brochures yet, but they will likely do this in the next month or so. Scheppke’s staff wasn’t sure if the new logo was mandatory or optional but he feels we all need to be loyal to our brand identity and start using it on all our Plinkit materials. States/organizations can use a different color scheme and can use or omit the tagline (as it talks about public libraries and CO and IL are not just public libraries anymore). Obert said this is her understanding and though work on Plinkit 2.0 has taken precedence, they will get it done. Littrell asked if this should this be on templates for all libraries’ websites? Obert said she thought it should. Scheppke wasn’t sure this should be mandatory – he said we just need to agree not to use a different logo. Mase agreed and thinks it’s a good brand but the files were hard to find at the website.
Duncan asked Shaffner to put these in a very prevalent public place on the website so it’s easy to get hold of the logo. Put it on the About page under Navigation (and change the name “Navigation” to “About”). Adams said keep it on the Resources page too.
10) Action item status
a. Business case on serving multi-type libraries – Duncan will finalize and send white paper on this to the Steering Committee.
b. Discussion re modifying Plinkit for school libraries – Scheppke’s email didn’t generate much feedback Obert said IL has high school libraries that have already modified Plinkit to meet their individual needs. Scheppke said for 10 years or so they have had a portal for schools, www.oslis.org that has licensed databases, Citation Maker software etc. and is well used by schools. They’ve discussed that if they want to take this to the next level, they could take this content and put it in Plinkit and let each library brand it for themselves and link to their catalog. This would take a huge effort. Perhaps we could apply for a National Leadership grant from IMLS and get lots of money to do this, but maybe we need to put this off for a year or so as writing a National Leadership grant is a lot of work and even more work once you get it.
Duncan said he’s interested in this as CO is looking to pilot two to three school libraries and is thinking about a different kind of template for them with more appropriate out of the box content. He wonders what the likelihood is that they’ll have the staffing to maintain their content, and he worries about principals wanting them to host their school sites (and then district sites - as some of their pages haven’t been touched in years) so he wants to investigate scope creep.
Obert said they’ve said no to doing school district Plinkit sites. The school libraries that are doing it had been having issues getting changes done to their web sites so they like having control of this themselves. Littrell said they haven’t had school libraries asking for this and they haven’t asked them about it as they don’t have a mandate to support them as the Texas Education Agency takes care of school libraries. They are so busy now, that if lots of school libraries wanted to join they’d be overwhelmed. Some of their library systems are moving in a multi type library direction. Adams echoes what Littrell says as the VA Department of Education is where their school libraries see their home. Scheppke will bring this up again in a year or so.
c. Plinkit name trademarking – Shaffner nudged Duncan/Adams on this
d. About membership statement – Shaffner will get to it by fall.
e. Joint membership – DONE
f. By-laws – Obert, Adams and Mase shared the document but haven’t had a chance to meet. Shaffner emailed a nudge to them on this.
g. Carol access/procedures to Plinkit finances at BCR – Duncan will do and he wondered if the chair should be serving as a treasurer. Obert, Adams and Mase will include this in the bylaws discussion. Should it be separated out? Adams wants to make sure we have good fiscal controls in place.
h. Web alternative to teleconference meeting – Shaffner said if anyone else has input on this, please send it to her and over the next month she’ll get to it.
11)Other business – Obert asked if she missed the email about upcoming meeting dates. Shaffner said she sent an email with the dates and they are also posted at the website under Upcoming Events.
There was no other business so Duncan adjourned the meeting and we all said goodbye and good luck to Piper.
The next Steering Committee meeting is Thursday 9/10/09 3-4:30pm ET, 2-3:30pm CT, 1-2:30pm MT and noon-1:30pm PT
Action Items
Who What
Duncan Send your business case on serving multi-type libraries and cost recovery to the list serv. At 4/29 SMERLS teleconference Duncan said he hadn’t had a chance to do this yet. At 7/2 meeting Duncan said he is finalizing a white paper for this and will send it to the Steering Committee soon.
Duncan When ready, ask Shaffner to set up a conference call with Gregory, Duncan, Hanning and Mary Wegner from Iowa re how we might start working together. Duncan said we’re ready, so 4/23 Shaffner emailed Wegner but has not received a reply. If still nothing by 5/26, she’ll see if Scheppke can mention to Wegner at the BCR Board meeting on 5/28. 5/29 Scheppke spoke to Wegner, they aren’t interested now, check again in one year. DONE
Scheppke/
All Email the list serv to start a discussion on the possibility of modifying Plinkit for school libraries. 4/28 Scheppke sent, 4/29 Piper replied. Need input from other members. DONE
Shaffner/Duncan/
Adams Shaffner start Plinkit name trademarking process. 5/5 Shaffner sent to Hanning and Duncan for review before submission. 7/2 Shaffner sent to Adams and nudged Duncan about it.
Shaffner Ask Steering members to send her brief reports from their states/organizations and she’ll aggregate and send one email to the list serv. DONE
Shaffner/
Duncan Shaffner will email Duncan re update on expansion of the Plinkit Collaborative (Iowa and Southeastern Massachusetts Regional Library System or SMERLS) so he can approve and she can send the joint email to list serv. DONE
Tech Group At July Tech Group only meeting discuss timing and attendance at Plone Boot Camp then come up with a final recommendation for Steering at the August PC/Tech group meeting.
Shaffner Chair the group looking into an About Membership statement. Other members are Scheppke, Yurcaba and Fipps. Try to have this to the Steering Committee for their approval by fall. Be sure to look at all we currently have at website about membership, consider the question re systems should be checking with their state libraries before joining and include details on the Collaborative’s expectations of members. Post statement at the website and delete all obsolete information.
Yurcaba/
Piper/Dragos Discuss your joint membership with each other, re fees you should pay, trial periods, committee representation, LYRASIS (and possibly NELINET) merger etc. and come back with a proposal for the July Steering meeting. Yurcaba may need to get LYRASIS’ input first. DONE
Obert/Adams/
Mase Work on creating by-laws, especially chair terms and vice-chair (or chair-elect) and past chair positions. Also consider if expansion and soliciting for new members should be addressed here. And consider if the chair should be serving as treasurer or would it be better for fiscal control to have a separate person for the treasurer position. 5/21 Obert’s tentative bylaws emailed to Adams and Mase and Obert said there won’t be a past chair position so it will just be a two year commitment.
Duncan Contact BCR re Adams access to and approval of Plinkit’s finances and let Adams know procedures when done.
Shaffner Re “consider web alternatives to phone conference calls” - send tentative email to Duncan for approval then email list serv. 6/15 Shaffner sent email.
Shaffner As Shaffner, Piper and others can’t attend the 7/9 meeting due to ALA, Gates grant meeting etc, poll the group for a new meeting time (include 7/6, 7/7, week after ALA, 7/1 and 7/2). DONE
Duncan Email the Steering Committee the latest balance in the Plinkit account.
Gregory Email Kreger to find out when the finished documentation will be available and let the Steering Committee know.
Piper Let Fipps know she’ll replace him on the group looking into an About Membership statement.
Shaffner Add all the LYRASIS states (except VA) to the Contact Form at http://www.plinkit.org/contact-info telling them to contact LYRASIS or your state library if interested in becoming a Plinkit site.
Shaffner When NELINET merges with LYRASIS in the fall, add all the NELINET states to the Contact Form at http://www.plinkit.org/contact-info telling them to contact LYRASIS or your state library if interested in becoming a Plinkit site (but first ask the Steering Committee if MA should be listed as SEMRLS may want to join on their own).
Shaffner Link to the logo file from “Navigation” (upper left corner) on the About page and change the word “Navigation” to “About” there.
