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Attending: Jeff Cannell (APLM); Ginny LaJuene (ALTM); Nancy Pieri (BETH); Deborah Canzano (COHS); Bob Jaquay (COLN); Pat Nonamaker (EGRN); Barbara Nichols Randall (GUIL); Carol Gaillard (HOOF); Margie Morris (POES); Judy Felsten (RCSC); Phil Ritter (UHLS); Barbara Schoen (WVLT)

Visitors: Mary Fellows (UHLS)

Meeting convened at 9:00am

Minutes:

Motion: (Schoen, Cannell) to approve January 4, 2002 minutes. Carried.

Pool Collection Planning Committee: Mary Fellows

• Packet of information and minutes from the last meeting has been sent to all directors this week. Mary explained the status of the process and what statistics the committee is using.
• The committee recommends phasing out the following collections: adult nonfiction, juvenile fiction, juvenile nonfiction, young adult fiction, easy readers, and nonfiction videos.
• Margie Morris, as representative of the small Rensselaer County libraries, explained the suggestion/ proposal from several Rensselaer County directors to have interested libraries develop smaller rotating collections made up of the books from the collections being phased out. It would be each holding library’s responsibility to maintain/distribute their part of the collection.
• Pat Nonamaker expressed concern about how the pool collection funds would be used and wasn’t part of the goal to free up money for other things. That has not been discussed yet at the pool committee meetings.

Motion: (Schoen, Gaillard) The Directors’ Association approves the proposal for narrowing down the UHLS pool collections of: adult nonfiction, juvenile fiction, juvenile nonfiction, young adult fiction, easy readers, and nonfiction videos; with the provision that the libraries who deem specific collections necessary, may develop a methodology and administration for them. Carried.

• This recommendation will now go to the Services Committee and to the UHLS Board for approval.

UHLS: Phil Ritter

• Annual reports – due to UHLS by February 15th. According to State Ed the website is now operating and all the bugs are out. Call Sara with any problems.
• Proposed Grant – Sara would like to work on a grant for the NYS Council of the Arts for a folk art program with Dale Johnson. It would be a turnkey, intergenerational program to celebrate ethnic diversity. A booklet would be developed to explain the history of folk art. Everyone felt this grant would be good.
• Proposed UHLS Online Database Brochure – suggestions were to eliminate graphic on front and back page of brochure and to use the same font for headings/titles as in a paragraph but use bold. Also libraries that have websites need to contact Rachel to be sure they are included on the brochure.
• Proposed UHLS Continuing Education Workshops Brochure – suggestion to add Friends of the Library to the list of people invited.
• Proposed UHLS Trustees Continuing Education Plan – want to make everyone aware of what is available in the area. Phil would like to come back to the next meeting with a more complete proposal. Comments, corrections, suggestions, or deletions on the plan are due to Phil by February 15th.
• Proposed UHLS Technology Advisory Council – UHLS wants to develop an advisory council to cover all technical issues, PCs, automation system, websites, etc. This council will not set policy or procedures. Their recommendations will go to the Automated Services Committee.

Motion: (Nonamaker, Schoen) Accept proposal to create the UHLS Technology Advisory Council. Carried

• Printed UHLS Directory – UHLS has agreed to print the directory one time per year. If any changes are made or errors found during the year, the online directory will be corrected and an email will notify of the change/correction but a new directory will not be printed. Heidi had sent out a request for updated information.

UHLS Administration: N. Pieri

• Task Force – floor ripped up and repaired
• Classification Study is underway – UHLS staff have sent in job descriptions
• Erosion of the bank behind UHLS – will cost $5000 to repair parking lot
• Bathrooms are being redone
• March meetings have been rescheduled due to PLA
• Annual dinner being held on Thursday, June 13th at Albany Country Club. Guest speaker will be Robert Freedman. There was concern expressed about directors not being asked before the meeting was changed from a Wednesday. Some people will not be available due to ALA.

Motion: (Pieri, Canzano) If possible, investigate the change of the annual dinner from the date chosen. Can it be moved to Tuesday, June 11th? Carried.

Services: J. Felsten

• Reviewed construction grants – everyone that applied received some funding
• New member form Guilderland – Robert Ganz

Automated Services Committee: N. Pieri

• Roadrunner will be the new ISP beginning this month.
• An email firewall will cost $2700.
• Meeting arranged with tech people for the libraries
• Updated list of UHLAN charges beginning in 2003 was approved.

Central Library: J. Cannell

• Albany has had good press on TV and in the Times Union about tutor.com which is being funded by Verizon.
• They are proceeding with rechartering and will be on the May 26th school ballot. They are working with the library school to get research on the pros and cons of other libraries that have done this.

Nuts & Bolts:

RCSC: Trying the community advisory process and held the first of three meetings. There is a mix of members (16) from business, school, and students. Judy is surprised at how little the community is aware of services offered in the area. Also, they received two microfilm machines from Kaiser-Permanente that were offered to anyone interested.

POES: Going for a Chapter 414 and plans to be on the November ballot. Nancy Pieri mentioned that she saw the article about the Poestenkill Library in the February issue of Hudson Valley Magazine.

GUIL: Albany County Legislature passed a resolution honoring Carol Hamblin.

COLN: Has 6 book carousels to offer, good for paperbacks. Call the library. They are also working on containing viruses on their computer system.

ALTM: New website, Peter Kowalski helped Ginny to get it going and they are now beginning to publicize it.

Old Business:
none

New Business:

• Disaster Plans – Sara is willing to work with libraries to develop plans. Let her know if you are interested in working in a group for this.
• Cohoes had a patron that had 60 CDs out and Debbie asked if there could be a system-wide limit set. The general opinion was that it is up to the individual library to set their limit. There was brief discussion on how we can keep each other informed of abuses of the limits.
• Discussion of fines - some libraries have dropped fines for videos down to book fines. Phil suggested standardizing fines to stop patrons from playing games from library to library. At the meeting next month, we will consider standardizing fines. Nancy Pieri will send out an email requesting fines policies so she can compile them. Any decision would have to go to all library boards but we may try to have this in effect for the beginning of the new automation system.

Motion: (Schoen, LaJuene) Meeting adjourned 10:40am. Next meeting March 1, 2002 at UHLS.