CLAN Minutes: Steering Committee, July 1,2004

CLAN's Steering Committee met on July 1, 2004 at the Warwick Public Library.  Chair Kathryn Taylor convened the meeting at 9:45.  In attendance were:

Susan Aylward, CLAN Secretary and NKI
Deborah Barchi, BAR
Peter Bennett, Central Site Rep, CLAN Systems and Network Administrator (SNA), PRO
Carol Brouwer, CLAN Vice Chair, NSM
John Carney, Steering Regional Rep, EPL
Francis Farrell-Bergeron, Alternate Steering Regional Rep, WWA
Leslie McDonough, CLAN Treasurer, SCI
Ginny Moses, CLAN Executive Director (ED)
Anne Parent, OLIS Rep
Rick Payette, CLAN Technical Support Specialist (TSS)
Regina Slezak, Steering Regional Rep, NPT
Cindy StAmour, CLAN Head of Data Processing
Kathryn Taylor, CLAN Chair, WES
Ulla Virks, Steering Regional Rep, CHA

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as written.

The ED's report had been submitted via email.  There were no questions.  

SNA's report had been submitted via email.  Additional information was reported:
        Horizon upgrade planned over the weekend of July 4-5.  Begin on 7/4 at 6 PM.
        Once we have the upgrade in place it will be easier to install Web Reporter.
System will be down during the up-grade.
HIP upgrade MUST follow Horizon upgrade.
COV appears to be the only library open on 7/5. Are there others?
Should be done by 7/5, in the morning, if there are no problems
Upgrade will solve problems with:
Batch item delete
Not putting Holds on items on-shelf
Intra-library loan stats
Acquisitions
Only significant digits of barcode will be needed to search, etc.
Many things will not be fixed by Upgrade.
Rick will post a complete list of improvements from the upgrade on the Support site.
Statistics may or may not be available for the first 6 months on Horizon/HIP. We'll let you know.

Discussion of Web Reporter ensued. Libraries need licenses to do reports. 20 licenses should be enough for all in CLAN who want to do their own, plus a master copy for the SNA. Cost about $17K. DYNIX should provide it for free.

Regina Slezak says NPT's Library Board is resisting paying its CLAN fees because of on-going problems.

Regina: Will stats we get be accurate?
Peter: Who knows? Do we know if those on CLSI or DYNIX were accurate? If you have examples of problems (specific ones) please let Cindy or Peter know what they are.
Regina: Circ stats have dropped since the migration.
Peter: There is no accurate explanation of how circ stats are counted.

DYNIX has resolved the Catcode Index problem.

A list of issues put together by directors of the Westerly Public Library, Cranston Public Library, East Providence Public Library and Newport Public Library was distributed. This list had been presented by Kathryn to Mr. Blount and Mr. Wilson of DYNIX at the ALA conference in Orlando and is reprinted below verbatim.

Many items on the sheet have already been resolved and need to be checked against the spreadsheet Peter and Cindy work from with DYNIX on a weekly basis. Peter said that there have been some problems that stem from operator error. Circ staffs need to pay closer attention to the screens in Horizon.

"Meeting with Dynix
June 25, 2004

Present: Jim Wilson, Jack Blount, David Macksam, Eileen Socha, Kathryn Taylor.

  1. Jim and Jack said that CLAN had not responded to Jim's April letter. He had asked for a response by June 1st.
  2. Jack said he though everything was OK because Peter had indicated that 125 items of concern had been resolved.
  3. When people are saying the system does not work, sometimes the problems are in the set-up. Jack said that the flexibility of Horizon is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The set-up parameters include so many possibilities.
  4. The 7.3.2 version may solve some of the problems on the list from E. Providence, Cranston, Westerly and Newport.
  5. Dynix is willing to give Web Reporter to Peter-we did not think that the members had ever created their own reports, and it would be sufficient to give it to just Peter for free.
  6. Ginny needs to collate the lists from Newport, E. Providence, Cranston and Westerly and contrast that list with spreadsheet of accomplished items.
  7. After we install 7.3.2, Dynix will prepare a proposal for the next CLAN that will include a detailed plan for appropriate training.
  8. Our concern/goal is to preserve the network. Library Directors are questioning the OLIS minimum standard that you need to be a member of CLAN to receive state aid. They want it to allow membership in any network.
  9. Jack said that the letter from the attorney was too general, especially regarding training and the distribution of Web Reporter.
  10. We were left with a strong sense that Dynix and the CLAN steering committee (they referred to the committee) will work together.
  11. We expressed a concern that if we can't resolve this to the satisfaction of the membership, CLAN may not survive.

Thoughts:
The steering committee should take a pro-active approach and contact HELIN. That is the network most often mentioned as a possibility.

Kathryn Taylor"

Items were discussed by number from above meeting report:

  1. Peter, Cindy, Rick and Ginny participated in a conference call with Mr. Wilson and addressed the items in his April letter.
  2. This response was nonsense
  3. Peter says we are good on the setup parameters. Cindy noted that Dynix is using, at other consortia, some consortium parameters that Peter set up.
  4. Maybe
  5. We need both the master software and the licenses, as previously stated, since many libraries do created their own reports. Ginny noted that DYNIX knows and has always known that some libraries do their own reports.
  6. John Carney has collated the lists.
  7. Nothing to add
  8. Nothing to add
  9. The letter from DYNIX should be answered in writing to the attorney.
  10. Nothing to add
  11. Ginny does not agree that this is true and wants to poll the membership library by library for a vote on how they think about this. She thinks that many libraries are doing well with Horizon but directors are loath to speak up at meetings. The same group of dissatisfied directors, amounting to 5 or 6, is speaking frequently while others are quiet, possibly reticent to speak up and be publicly challenged. She doesn't think CLAN will be undone by the current situation and thinks it was a mistake to say that to Dynix without the authorization of the membership. Her impression, and she believes that of Rick, Cindy, and Peter as they interact extensively with various directors and staff at CLAN libraries and patrons is that most are doing well with Horizon.

Fran disagreed and heated discussion ensued between Fran and Ginny until Kathryn closed it.

Peter says in the long term, if the membership thinks Horizon won't work, we can look at alternatives. III makes the most sense.

Leslie and Susan A. asked if CLAN can survive a major platform change.

Rick said that telling Dynix that CLAN might fall apart because of the migration problems puts CLAN in a weak negotiating position with Dynix. Dynix might feel that this perception of weakness would allow them to ignore us. There was murmured agreement to this statement.

Leslie suggested we do an RFI for III.

Peter: Progress has been and is being made every day in Horizon.
Susan A.: Tremendous progress.
Fran: There are ongoing problems and new problems. Things should be going faster. It is taking too long.

Peter said that R140 in Dynix was a huge step forward in getting Dynix to run as we wanted it to. It took about 18 months from the initial migration to Dynix for this to take place. On a comparative scale we are currently at about R135 level in Horizon.

Fran noted that the dimensions of the problems right away were huge.

***Motion: Authorize Ginny not to pay the $90K currently due to DYNIX for annual maintenance (Anne)
***Second (Leslie)
***Unanimously passed

***Motion: Have Ginny prepare an RFI to III to be ready in time for the October Steering Committee meeting (Leslie)
***Second: (John)
***Unanimously passed

Annual reports are due to OLIS by September 15. Estimates will not be acceptable for FSCS report. If you can't fill in a blank, write in "no numbers available."
For LORI, make your best estimate.

Kathryn: consider charging DYNIX for the hours spent on the training at libraries by Peter, Cindy and Rick.

WORM OUTBREAK

W32 Spybot worm has shown up at 12 or 13 libraries according to Rick. Libraries with up to date anti virus software are ok. Cleaning the worm is not difficult, but it is time consuming.

Horizon 7.3.2 Upgrade instructions:

The CLAN support site has instructions for downloading Release 7.3.2. On July 6 you'll either get an upgrade message on your screens and you'll have to do the download, or you could install it now and have it ready to go.

Libraries with Self-check will have a different problem.

Susan R. and Debbie reported on the draft of some suggestions they prepared for addressing issues they see with CLAN By-law changes [PDF]. They said we need to address the by-laws and make some changes. They are good but need tweaking.

Ginny noted that Susan R. and Debbie had been tasked with delineating what Steering's responsibilities are, not with changing the by-laws, and that the committee had planned to ask Fran to review the by-laws and recommend changes.

Anne suggested that if we have Finance and Personnel committees as suggested by Susan R. and Debbie members serve for 2 or 3 years so as to become seasoned.

Steering will look at the by-laws and create a subcommittee to delineate responsibilities.

Ginny reported Websense is up and running today in all CLAN libraries in compliance with CIPA. Contact DP if there is a problem.

Cox connections are not working so the Verizon connections are still up.

Carol: can DYNIX disconnect us for not paying our $90K invoice?

Peter: They can refuse to answer support requests but they cannot disconnect us.

Meeting adjourned at 11:35. Next meeting August 26, 2004, at WAR.