Atttending: Wendy Hysko, Chris Kirby, Stephanie Chase and Mary Danko
Mary Danko took the minutes
1. The agenda item to elect a treasurer was tabled till next meeting. Mary will ask Deborah if she will fill that role.
2. Mary updated the board on the progress of the GMLC memberships for 2012. She and Virgil had been working on them all week and expect them to get out the following week. This is a good early start which should allow ample time for members to pay by the end of 2011.
3. The agenda item for eBook purchasing was tabled till next meeting. Mary will continue to think of ways on how to allocate money and urged the board to consider this as we’ll. They should email her any ideas they may have.
4. The board considered a request by Virgil Fuller for money to help offset a reference class he is taking. The board acknowledged the hard work and many volunteer hours done by Virgil but felt for bookkeeping purposes it was better to pay for something specific in its entirety. It was decided to pay for his books for the class. We wish him well with his class!
5. Mary brought up the fact that many of the Harper Collins eBook titles in the ListenUp! Vermont collection had significant holds and wanted the boards advice if we should buy extra licenses for them (in groups of 26 of course!). This prompted significant discussion on our collection and it was decided that we will strive to meet the needs of the patrons by filling holds as timely as we can but that some titles may eventually time out due the DRM with certain publishers. This is similar to our MaxAccess collection with OverDrive. It was also decided that our members need to be educated about how our eBook digital collection may “weed itself out” on titles and that we might not have back copies of certain books.
6. The board discussed pricing for academic libraries. We have not had any higher institutions of learning join yet and have decided to keep conversations going and keep it experimental. Prospective members are to be told that this is an evolving area for us and that we will start with public pricing and see how things go. We are excited to see how this new type of member will develop.
7. Wendy spoke about (as was discussed by the VOKAL Implementation Team) possibly having a different structure for VOKAL so that libraries could stand alone and not be a GMLC member. A few things were noted why this might not be workable. Since ListenUp! Vermont is our core, we want to have it be a part of the consortium catalog. ListenUp! Vermont holdings are a big part of the catalog and it would be confusing to patrons to have libraries that don’t have access to it. Also, administrative wise it still makes sense to have GMLC maintain bookkeeping, maintain records, offer the 501c3 umbrella, and share other miscellaneous overhead. All of this is what helps make VOKAL really affordable for libraries. Wendy also let us know how well the VOKAL Consortium catalog is doing and that patrons love it! Also, many more libraries are scheduled to go on soon. We send them good wishes!
8. Mary talked about meeting with Marty Reid, the state librarian. She asked for the board’s advice on possible opportunities to partner with DOL. The board gave several suggestions that Mary will talk with Marty about.