April 2012 Meeting Minutes

April 10, 2012 (Asita)

1. What’s In Your Future? Libraries in This Century presentation in Bangor – Katie and Leslie
• Presented by Eli Neilburger from the Ann Arbor Michigan District Library.
• More focused on public libraries (versus general)
• Eli Neilburger spoke about owning your business, and leasing causes problems because you don’t own it. Spoke on the importance of libraries producing things and providing services to their users; finding ways to bring people to the library.
• For example, their library digitized local newspapers; they also have media librarians and are very IT focused (programmers), podcasts
• Think about the library’s role, what do you provide, who do you serve, provide local resources
• Fiddlehead Focus archive fits well with this theme
• Katie summarized the theme well – create and own and put it out for people to use
• Leslie will email and ask for the Powerpoint Presentation to share with library staff
• Katie & Leslie has a good time walking around the Orono library (UM), there were double-decker carrels that were very popular with the students, power strips and fans everywhere. Signs advertising reference texting. Leslie was wondering what the use is concerning text versus chat. Sofia said they would talk about that during the retreat. Sofia mentioned using recycled flooring, easier to clean than rug, and still dampens the noise.
• Also visited the Husson Museum, they rotate the collection out into the viewing area, and bring school kids there. They have apps for iPads.
2. E-book Workshop at NMCC Library - Sofia
• Sofia reported it was a very good session, she got good information.
• Discovered Amazon Kindle allows sharing/lending, in the past it wasn’t allowed for libraries.
• A couple high school libraries and a middle school have Kindles they lend out, which they manage and buy books and share them. One library deauthorizes the Kindle before checking out to a user (to prevent purchasing materials with the Kindle). One program was so successful parents bought Kindles for their kids.
• Focused more on purchasing and loaning than on the download library.
• Raises the question how the high school should set up their Kindles now there is a change with sharing/lending.
• NMCC Library loans out iPads, they don’t go off campus, but can go out of the library. Eventually will move to off campus use.
• Talked about interactive books, one example was an Al Gore book which allows you to zoom in, plays audio, etc. One page you could blow on the iPad to make a windmill turn and see the flow of energy from windmill to house. Also saw an example of interactive children’s books, where you participate in the reading experience. Interesting to see how iPads are being used. They do on demand purchasing.
• Sofia mentioned the database committee talked about system wide PDA (patron driven acquisition), this might make more sense than just buying collections with books (where some books never get used). Leslie liked the idea of enhancing a book to make it interactive and learn. Sofia noted the difference between e-readers and tablets, e-readers are for reading e-books, while tablets can do that but also go on the web. [ereaders use e-ink which tablets don't have. Sofia]
• Sofia also talked about libraries, how they will survive/stay if they continue to innovate and stay current, and don’t get stuck with the idea that information is a book. An example of innovating from the presentation Katie & Leslie attended was the video editing room for library patrons to use. Katie talked about the example used, 200 years ago candles were the primary source of light, now they are still in use, but it’s different. They’ve been outmoded, but are not obsolete, same idea for print materials.
• Sofia talked about Access 360 through Baker & Taylor, which allows libraries to manage purchased e book collections. It’s important to have a system in place that has an ILL feature, but Sofia isn’t sure if the system only allows lending to other 360 libraries or any library.
• Leslie mentioned that Eli Neilburger would want patrons to be able to take the file and keep it, Sofia said publishers at this time won’t allow it. Sofia also mentioned a lawsuit concerning a library and overdrive and the moving of e-resources.
• Sofia will send library staff links to pertinent information from her e-book workshop, overall it was very good.
• Katie talked about Eli Neilburger saying e-readers are used by baby boomers for reading, while younger people don’t want a cell phone, camera, e-reader, they want it all in one. Current e-readers will go away.
• Sofia noted that there is an important distinction with e-readers and tablets, e-readers have eink and makes reading easy on the eyes, while tablets do not and cause eye strain just like a computer screen.
• Leslie said Eli N. said in the future ebooks will be very inexpensive or free to download, the self-publishing market is getting bigger and bigger. People will go to cheaper or free things. Sofia mentioned a Library Journal article on Random House increasing prices dramatically, and that libraries need to fight back and say enough. Leslie asked about the library’s Kobo use, there has been one patron who checked it out, but didn’t like it. Sofia mentioned a Japanese company that made a smart ebook that allows flipping of pages on the screen.
• Leslie mentioned a woman who gave a TED talk in the mid-90s on technology, and how she’s reversed her position, and wonders is technology good for us? Leslie will send the link to us. Sofia and Katie talked about the Films on Demand that has the TED talks.
3. Library Director’s Meeting Draft Agenda – Leslie
• Jerry Lund (Orono circulation) and Kurt Madison (University College). Kurt Madison will review off-campus library services, looking at the service level agreement. It’s still in draft and changes often. One issue is paying off-campus services for providing services like copyright and streaming. The cost for streaming is high. Most services we provide, but there are hidden benefits.
• Circulation meeting’s purpose was to get people to look higher and collaborate.
• Collections Committee/USDCC - Deb Rollins will report on e-resources. Sofia shared that Deb Rollins looked at each campus’ majors/minors, and the resources they have. They have created a wishlist of databases/e-resources the system would like. As mentioned before, they also discussed a system level PDA. Off campus services will be providing money for UMS databases.
• Sofia mentioned she wants to fix the Mariner intro page, Leslie noted there are pages that are outdated. Sofia will email Leslie a quick list. [list referred to what the group discussed - not outdated pages. Sofia]
• Creating a common pool
• Aries / e-reserves – nice but overkill, more expensive than Docutek. Docutek pricing change, Leslie thinks Docutek is going away. Leslie asked Deb to send her stats concerning who (faculty) is using the e-reserves and what kinds of things are they using it for (books, textbooks, articles, etc.).
• WorldCat Local Followup – any thoughts? Send feedback to Leslie by Wednesday, April 18th. Sofia likes how it pushes things out front, Katie noted the interface is a lot nicer. Leslie asked to have a couple workstudy students look at it and give feedback.
• Reference Committee Retreat – our share is smaller than expected.
• Maine Infonet Support – Library Anywhere
• Reading history in III, saving lists.
• Vote Special Collections.
4. Patriot’s Day – Monday, April 16, Asita is working her Monday evening, and taking Tuesday off. Deb and Brenda are off Monday.
5. Pencil Sharpener – pencil sharpener by old microfilm room (now quiet study room) fell off the wall. Need to have good pencil sharpeners for students to use. Leslie and Katie relocated the pencil sharpener, and checked the others in the library.
6. Budget – Leslie says the budget is now frozen, anything that hasn’t been encumbered is frozen. She asked about any remaining unencumbered or unpaid items (standing orders, serials).
7. Symposium – Leslie says she and Nicki are having a hard time with students meeting the deadline. Only 1 student has passed in their poster. Nicki will print off instructions for printing posters for the library staff to have in case a student needs to print out their poster when she’s not available. Leslie is also out next Monday through Wednesday. Workstudy should be aware of this as well. Therese will be dropping off art posters Wednesday evening (while Sofia’s working), if Sofia’s not around, just leave them behind her desk. The macbook being used by 2 SOC 347 students for their movie presentation will leave the library probably Thursday evening as they will run their movie from the macbook, the files will be on the h drive, and backed up on a CD (Katie will hold on to this). Leslie might need other macbooks for other students, she’ll come pick them up if needed Thursday evening.

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