MOBAC Reference Committee Meeting Minutes

January 28, 2014

Salinas Public Library Cesar Chavez Branch

 

Present:  Mary Elturk, chair [PGPL]; Kris Amaral [SPL];

Heather Geddes [WAT]; Jean Chapin [HML]; Amy Chirman [MPC];

Sarah Dahlen [CSUMB]; Laura Dickie [CAB]; Frank Gravier [UCSC];

Deborah Stephens [HCL]; Inga Waite [MPL]; Jen Waterson, recorder [MIIS]

 

Call to Order

 

The meeting was called to order at 2:05 p.m.

 

Approval of Minutes

 

Minutes from the November 26^th, 2013, meeting at the Castroville Branch of MCFL were approved.

 

Public Comments

 

There were no public comments.

 

Reports

 

Administrative Council

 

Mary and Inga attended the Administrative Council meeting on Friday, December  13, 2013. They reported the following:

 

There will be an all day strategic planning meeting on February 28^th at the Marina Branch of Monterey County Free Libraries. Council is asking to have two representatives from each MOBAC committee attend the meeting. Mary will attend the meeting as one of the reference committee representatives. She will ask Be if she is able to attend the meeting.

 

 

The purpose of the meeting is to determine the future goals of MOBAC because MOBAC is running out of money.

 

PLP wants the MOBAC committees to recreate a workshop to take on the road to the Bay Area.  The reference committee will try to do this, but staffing issues may pose a challenge.

 

PLP hosts workshops outside of the MOBAC area. PLP was responsible for nineteen innovation grants.

 

PLP is starting a library talent exchange. Information is on the PLP website at PLPinfo.org  It is modelled after Santa Clara and San Mateo libraries.

 

SFPL Director Luis Herrera will be a presenter at Santa Clara City Library on May 9, 2014. He will speak about leading change. He was featured in Library Journal. Luis encourages staff to be able to recite the three organization goals from memory.

 

The Administrative Council wants a director liaison to attend each MOBAC committee’s meetings. One possibility is to have the director of the library that is hosting the meeting be the liaison for that meeting. The MOBAC Reference Committee liaison may change in July.

The council wants all MOBAC committees to post meeting schedules and locations more than a year in advance. Not all committees have regularly scheduled meetings. The reference committee schedules and posts meetings in advance.

 

CALIFA’s President of the Board reported in December that revenues were up by thirty five percent. There was an increase in grants and product sales. Enki, a Sumerian god, is available for free to all public and academic libraries for one year. The Enki in the library program is operated by four people at Contra Cost County Library.

Enki includes children’s biographies. Interested librarians may call Contra Costa County Library to ask their Enki staff to add Enki to their own library.

 

Don Gardner from Salinas Public Library impressed the Administrative Council with a book talk about emotionally difficult topics in children’s books. Don also presented SPLAMBA’s annual report.

 

Technology Committee

 

Deborah attended the technology committee meeting.

 

The committee’s minutes are on the MOBAC website. The committee is working on hosting a workshop in the spring of 2014. They are exploring April 25^th or May 2^nd as possible workshop dates. The technology committee has discovered that Fridays work better than Thursdays for workshops. Some workshop topic possiblities include intellectual freedom and patron privacy, including the issue of patrons tacitly agreeing to policies when they sign up with third party vendors. The technology committee does not have a workshop budget. In the past an ALA attorney gave an excellent presentation about intellectual freedom.

 

Interlibrary Loan Committee

 

Jean and Jen attended the interlibrary loan committee meeting.

 

The ILL committee expressed interest in working with the technology committee to present a workshop. Mary Minnow was one of the possible presenters that the committee discussed. The ILL committee would be willing to offer its own workshop money, up to $500, for a joint ILL and technology workshop. There was a discussion about completing the PLP survey. Irma will attend the Administrative Council strategic planning meeting on February 28^th. Ray will check to make sure that he can also attend the strategic planning meeting. PGPL, MPL and SPL are not entering records into OCLC. PGPL and MPL use Sky River. SPL uses Baker and Taylor and the z search on KOHA.

Ray discussed MCFL’s zip books program. Zip books is the program in which a patron receives an interlibrary loan book directly from Amazon. Only ten percent of the patrons have been willing to use zip books. Ninety percent preferred traditional interlibrary loan service. One of the grant requirements was for library staff to use scripted words to introduce the zip books service. Patrons did not want to hear the spiel. Some other libraries like zip books. Zip books has restrictions such as a price point limit, no new books and no duplicate copies.

 

SPLAMBA

 

There was no report at this meeting.

 

Old Business

 

The workshop planning discussion resumed.  As agreed in the last meeting Ann asked Judit if she would be available to do a presentation about electronic resource statistics at a database selection and evaluation workshop in March. Judit agreed to be a presenter if she is available on the day of the workshop. Judit’s presentation may not fit with the workshop themes  at this time. As agreed at the November meeting Mary asked Steven if he would do a twenty minute presentation about database negotiation. Due to time constraints he had to decline. The reference committee decided that May 16^th or May 30^th in the morning would be good screencasting software workshop date possibilities. Amy will check MPC’s Sam Karas room availability for the workshop. In addition to Judit other possible presenters and presentations are Sarah [CSUMB] best pedagogical practices; Deborah [HCL] Active Presenter; Ann [NPS]and Amy [MPC]  Snag It, Camtasia; Frank will check with a UCSC colleague about doing a Guide on the Side presentation; Heather will check with WAT colleagues about doing a You Tube presentation. Amy will check into the possibility of having parking passes for MPC for the day of the workshop.

 

The MOBAC Reference Committee will also host a second workshop in the spring. This informal workshop will be about free resource sharing and chocolate tasting. Attendees are encouraged to bring a free resource and chocolate to share. It will feature the “hidden treasures” of free resources.

Heather will check the availability of WAT for the workshop to be held in the morning of either Friday, March 14^th or Friday, March 21^st.  Free resource discussions may include Enki [Inga] and Fact Cards [Heather].

 

Heather shared that CALIFA is offering free electronic social studies  fact cards to all public libraries. More information is available at factcards.califa.org 

 

Ideas for future workshops include database promotion and outreach to schools.

 

New Business

 

Mary will attend the strategic plan meeting on February 28^th as one of two reference committee representatives. Mary will ask Be if she is available to attend the meeting as the second reference committee representative. The meeting will be held at the Marina Branch of MCFL. Mary, Amy and Jen will work together to arrange light refreshments for the screencasting workshop at MPC in May [the 16^th or the 30^th].

 

The reference committee engaged in a discussion about the MOBAC survey. Librarians expressed differing opinions regarding question number one, which is “from your perspective, who is MOBAC’s primary customer [choose one].”  In other sections of the survey committee members expressed the following:  MOBAC provides an opportunity for problem solving, talent sharing, institutional knowledge and information sharing. MOBAC’s dues to PLP are rather steep. PLP makes it possible to have courier service, grants, terrific deals on databases, financial support and administrative support.

 

The 2014 – 2015 meeting location schedule was drafted. Representatives will check on the availability of meeting rooms. The tentative schedule is as follows:

 

 

2014: January 28^th Cesar Chavez Library SPL; February 25^th Marina Branch MCFL; March 25^th San Benito County Library in Hollister; April 22^nd PGPL;

May 27^th CSUMB; June 24^th MIIS; No meeting in July; August 26^th WAT;

September 23^rd MPC; October date TBD for the Future of Reference workshop 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.; November 25^th MPL; and, no meeting in December 2015: January 27^th WAT; February 24^th HCL; March 24^th Cesar Chavez Library SPL; April 28^th PGPL; May 26^th CSUMB; and, June 23^rd MIIS.

 

Reference Shares

 

Jean presented several reference shares.  There was a notice in AT&T phone books stating that AT&T will no longer publish white page residential listings in print format. The company will continue to publish business and government listings as well as yellow pages. YP.com and other online sources do list residential telephone numbers. 

The EDGE Initiative encourages technology use in libraries. It is used for technological strategic planning. The impact survey, which is free for public libraries, helps librarians complete the Edge Initiative. For information visit the libraryedge.org website.

 

Library Aware is an EBSCO product that allows a flyer to be made into a bookmark, a press release, etc. Quotes started at less than $1,000.00 per year. Lib Answers, from Springshare, allows texting, email and chat all in one place.

 

News from Libraries 

 

 

News is not recorded.

 

Next meeting 

 

 

February 25^th, 2014, Marina Branch of MCFL

 

Meeting adjourned