IFLS Board of Trustees #060(14)
INDIANHEAD FEDERATED LIBRARY SYSTEM
Board of Trustees
November 19, 2014
M I N U T E S
The Board of Trustees of the Indianhead Federated Library System met on Wednesday,
November 19, 2014 at Indianhead Federated Library System, 1538 Truax Boulevard, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Mike Norman called the meeting to order at 12:34 pm.
QUORUM AND CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE
WITH OPEN MEETINGS LAW:
Joanne Gardner established that a quorum was present and certified that the meeting had been properly noticed in compliance with the open meeting law.
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:
Judy Achterhof (St. Croix County); Steve Anderson (St. Croix County); Mary Ellen Brue (St. Croix County); Jan Daus (Eau Claire County); Sue Duerkop (Polk County); Pat Eggert (Dunn County); Robert Fraser (Eau Claire County); Marilyn Holte (Chippewa County); Lyle Lieffring (Rusk County); Marge Lindemann (Barron County); Robert Mercord (Pierce County); Mike Norman (Pierce County); Jackie Pavelski (Eau Claire County); Jean Schlieve (Eau Claire County); Linda Thompson (Barron County); Jim Tripp (Dunn County); Larry Willkom (Chippewa County).
BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:
Ron McLaughlin (Price County); Warren Nelson (Polk County); Gyneth Slygh (Pepin County).
OTHERS PRESENT:
John Thompson (Director); Juli Button (Business Manager); Joanne Gardner (Administrative Associate/Recorder); John Stoneberg – Director of L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Resource Library Advisory Council Representative.)
APPROVE AGENDA:
MOTION #63(14): To approve the November 19, 2014 Agenda as presented. Fraser/Brue
RESULT: Carried.
CITIZEN COMMENTS:
There were no citizen comments.
ANNOUNCEMENTS/CORRESPONDENCE/INTRODUCTIONS:
Sympathies were extended to Brue on the recent loss of her husband. Brue thanked the Board for their heartwarming responses over the past year and recent passing.
An article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press was passed around. The article featured re-designed libraries.
MINUTES:
MOTION #64(14): To approve the Board of Trustees minutes dated September 24, 2014 (Doc. #050-14) Holte/Mercord
RESULT: Carried.
MOTION #65(14): To acknowledge receipt of the Personnel Committee minutes dated September 24, 2014 (Doc. #049-14) Daus/Holte
RESULT: Carried.
FINANCIAL REPORTS:
MOTION #66(14): To approve the September/October 2014 Check Registers
(Doc. #052-14). Fraser/Daus
RESULT: Carried.
MOTION #67(14): To approve the September/October 2014 Financial Reports (Doc. #053-14). Holte/Lieffring
RESULT: Carried.
Button noted that the financial reports include the revised budget figures which were approved at the September 2014 meeting.
DIRECTOR’S REPORT OF MONTHLY ACTIVITIES
AND AGENDA ITEMS:
Thompson has been sending an update in the off months in which the Board doesn’t meet.
Polk County did pass changing Act 150 reimbursement from the threshold 70% up to 80%.
Milltown is busy again with their fundraising campaign. The campaign had stalled when two members passed away.
Tiffany Meyer, former director at the Dresser Library, accepted the directorship at Ellsworth.
Thompson and two IFLS staff attended the WLA conference. The conference was well attended by staff and directors from within the system. There were a lot of good programs and ideas. Wisconsin Dells proved to be a good venue for the conference. One IFLS library director coordinated a dinner among IFLS directors in which 20 attended.
2015 STATE LONG RANGE
PLAN AND BUDGET:
The final version of the State Long Range Plan with the budget was provided. The narrative piece of the plan was approved at the September 2014 meeting. The budget section wasn’t added until it was approved.
This plan and budget will be submitted to the state. Once approved, it will release the first payment of state aids for 2015. The plan includes how IFLS will meet each of the state required mandates within the prepared budget.
A graph of the 2015 preliminary budget by program was provided. The graph shows how the money is spent for each program mandate and includes the revenue source.
MOTION #68(14): To approve the 2015 State Long Range Plan and Budget
(Doc. #055-14). Eggert/Duerkop
RESULT: Carried.
IFLS TECHNOLOGY PLAN:
MOTION #69(14): To approve the IFLS Technology Plan (Doc. #056-14). Fraser/Lieffring
RESULT: Carried.
The State requires systems to submit a Technology Plan every five years. IFLS extracted the Technology Plan from the IFLS Long Range Plan.
Board members commented that the plan was well done.
UPDATE FROM DIRECTOR EVALUATION
PROCESS COMMITTEE:
Anderson prepared an analysis that the committee reviewed. The analysis was done based on the questions not answered in the director evaluation survey of board, staff, and librarians. After analyzing why the questions may not have been answered, nine of the questions were eliminated and a new question was created.
The committee watched a demo conducted by Thompson on an electronic survey software called Survey Monkey. It is a quick, efficient way to tally results of the survey. It would enable the survey to be sent to all librarians rather than selecting from year to year.
The committee will meet again in January and hope to provide a completion report in March to implement the Director Evaluation Process in 2015.
UPDATE ON LEAN SYSTEM PROCESS:
The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) created a committee to evaluate library systems, COLAND was looking at visions of library systems in the 21st century. COLAND piggybacked onto the Lean Study started by DPI. A report is to be submitted to the Superintendent of Public Instruction in January 2015. Thompson served on the LEAN Committee.
COLAND prepared a draft of endorsed recommendations which are in the handout today. This handout includes the vision and strategic directions recommended by the COLAND work group.
Thompson reviewed some of the strategic directions of the COLAND work group.
Library consulting and expertise would be verified by the DPI and delivered in the most appropriate method. DPI would provide a pool of resources for these and other topics needed. Expertise would reside in the library systems staff or public library staff. Thompson noted that currently there is no uniform delivery of services across the systems. Some systems lack funding, some are too small to provide a broad level of expertise, and others choose how to allocate funds in different ways to meet the mandates. Mandates tell systems the services they must provide, but do not tell systems how much needs to be allocated per mandate. IFLS tries hard to provide the full range of expertise of the mandated services.
Another recommendation of the COLAND work group in providing support technology would be to move to the Cloud. Cloud-based services are cost effective and would minimize maintenance and hosting of physical servers onsite at libraries and systems. System technical staff could shift their focus from maintaining servers to assisting libraries with providing and administering their technology-based services.
The COLAND work group has recommended that the value proposition of Resource Libraries should be redefined. Statutes that define Resource Libraries were written when print materials dominated public library collections. It was noted that our Resource Library provides a whole host of sharing and coordination.
The COLAND work group made an additional recommendation to eliminate statutory language requiring DPI to request 13% for library system aid. The current statutes require that DPI submit 13% library system aid in its biennial budget. The current funding level is just under 7%. Eliminating this mandate and allowing for smaller increases provides DPI the flexibility to make more realistic requests.
The seven members of the COLAND work group were included in the handout. The LEAN Committee had about seven members as well.
Norman noted that trustees should direct comments to Thompson to be sure voice is heard. Library systems in Wisconsin are going to change. Holte wondered if as a group there should be one voice in a consensus or statement from the IFLS Board.
Thompson noted that COLAND has already endorsed their vision. The feedback received to date has not influenced their vision. Thompson views the key piece as how their vision will be implemented and who will implement it. We need to make sure the solutions apply to the entire state and not just fix problems in a specific system.
When there is opportunity to comment, Thompson will notify the Board. Thompson is trying to create leadership roles in these discussions and trying to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves. Gus Falkenberg is helping with the tech aspect.
The Lean Committee, of which Thompson was involved with, felt there needs to be a creation of implementation teams. Tech should be reshaped by those who understand it. It is hoped this is recognized as they move forward. It is viewed by the LEAN committee that the implementation team would include DPI experts, system tech people, and library tech people.
Thompson will provide an update at the January 2015 board meeting or updates as warranted.
WEB ACCESSIBILITY POLICY
AND PURCHASING GUIDELINES:
The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library (LEPMPL) has requested IFLS/MORE to adopt a similar policy to the one recently passed at their library board to help ensure accessibility to the online catalog and electronic resources. A copy of the policy was provided.
MOTION #70(14): To approve the Web Accessibility Policy and Purchasing Guidelines as amended for IFLS (Doc. #057-14). Pavelski/Daus
RESULT: Carried.
Stoneberg provided some background to the proposed policy. Dr. Catherine Schneider, a nationally known advocate for people with disabilities, uses the library heavily and accesses the shared catalog weekly. Although Innovative recently made upgrades to the catalog, the software for people with visual impairments was difficult to use.
IFLS’ Lori Roholt was helpful and did some research into this. There is a federal law making electronic resources accessible for those with disabilities. Currently only 12 states follow this law. The law states that whenever possible, electronic resources should be usable for those with disabilities. If 5 vendors are offering a similar product, one would give positive consideration to the vendor who offers usability to those with disabilities.
Stoneberg noted that the University of Wisconsin system had a web accessibility and purchasing guidelines that were pared down for the Eau Claire Public Library. The documents were reviewed by the City Attorney and by City Purchasing and recently approved by the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire.
This action is not trying to change the world, but rather in the future, if looking to purchase a new product, the library takes this into consideration and when possible the given vendor would receive a positive consideration for their product.
If the IFLS Board approves the accessibility policy and purchasing guidelines as proposed, MORE will be asked to affirm what the IFLS Board approves.
REPORTS:
IFLS Staff Reports: It was noted that the printed staff reports are very valuable.
In-depth Staff Report: MORE Staff were introduced: Lori Roholt, Kathy Setter, and Julie Woodruff.
Roholt is the MORE Administrator and noted that the last half of the year included launching a new online catalog interface. It was made public in August of 2014 and not entirely problem-free. Starting on December 1st, the online catalog will include more cover images.
Setter is one of the MORE Project Managers. She answers questions from library staff on circulation, troubleshooting holds, cataloging, and serial holdings. Setter assists in providing training with Roholt and Woodruff. Setter also provides assistance with the Shared Services. The five participating libraries are trying to use up their money by the end of the year. The five libraries participating in the Shared Services include New Richmond, Hudson, Menomonie, Rice Lake, and Prescott. Shared Services seems to work well and is the most cost effective for the mid-to-larger sized libraries and often occur in situations where they are losing staff.
Woodruff is also a MORE Project Manager. Her latest project has been preparing the MORE database to be sent out for cleanup. Woodruff handles a lot of cataloging and acquisition questions from member library staff. Woodruff also assists in training sessions.
In January, Woodruff will be assisting libraries by preparing data for their annual reports.
Setter noted that Innovative Interfaces (III) sponsors an IUG conference for those using III’s software. Setter is serving her second term on the board. The IUG Conference is one annual event and Setter had influence in them selecting Minnesota to hold their conference for the first time. 2/3 of the sessions at the conference are done by members. The other 1/3 are conducted by III staff. Setter, Woodruff, and Roholt have done presentations at this conference. IFLS is well known in other III library circles.
Stoneberg noted that he attend the IUG Conference for the experience and it was the best conference he has ever been to.
Advisory Council of Librarians Report: John Stoneberg, Director of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library (LEPMPL) in Eau Claire provided an oral report. Stoneberg is chair of the Advisory Council of Librarians. By state statute the Advisory Council advises IFLS and the system board and provides feedback on budget, services, etc. The group meets twice a year. There are 13 members. One member representing each of the 10 counties of IFLS; 1 resource library rep; 1 special rep; and 1 school/academic rep. IFLS and the Advisory Chair set the agendas. A representative attends each IFLS Board meeting.
LEPMPL is the largest library in IFLS and serves as the Resource Library. Next year will be the 140th year as a tax-supported library for Eau Claire. The library has always been within a 4 block radius of downtown Eau Claire. The original library was a Carnegie library. The current building was opened in November of 1776. By national standards, the library is considered medium-sized.
Over the years, the building has become landlocked. The library has given up storage and reader space. In 2014, the library had the pleasure of not using tax money to add some very nice adult reading areas back into the first floor with a view of the river. The funds came 3 sources: an estate that gave money to Eau Claire; a trust fund; and the Friends group.
LEPMPL recently provided the presence for safety in the community/library. The idea was that a police officer makes a presence and provides a safe place to be. Part of the LEPMPL staff lounge was redesigned to provide a computer for police officers as well as the ability to use other staff facilities.
Stoneberg noted that there are several tech projects going on. The major donation of the IPad project in 2011 was just switched to the IPad Airs.