library of california
Gold Coast Library Network
Ventura + Santa Barbara + San Luis Obispo
Board of Directors
Discussion Summary
Goleta Valley Public Library
March 22, 2001

The Board of Directors met on March 22, 2001 at the Goleta Valley Public Library. Present at this meeting were John Murray, Chair; Carol Keator, Vice Chair; Sarah Pritchard, Resource Libraries Representative, Bill Stokes, School Libraries Representative, and Terri Sheridan, Special Libraries Representative.

Also present were Bessie Condos Tichauer, Library of California Network Liaison; Judith Segel, Chief Executive, Gold Coast Library Network; and Mary Lou Kravetz, Program Manager, Gold Coast Library Network.

Not present were Bryan Thompson, Records and Correspondence Chair; Octavio Sifuentes, Finance Chair; Hiram Davis, Academic Libraries Representatives; and Bettie Day, Library User Representative.

Because there were only five members of the Board present, not a quorum of six, this meeting is not an official meeting of the Board of Directors of Gold Coast Library Network.

1. Minutes - No comments on the minutes, and approval of the minutes will be delayed until the next Board of Directors' meeting.
2. Financial Report - The financial report has a new format. Part I has funding sources and ongoing balances on grant projects. Part II has expenditures. Inadvertently, the funding for the Newsbank project ($15,391) was left off of funding sources. This is a charge back program to library participants.
3. Report on LoC Regions' Meeting March 21, 2001 - Judith and Mary Lou attended the meeting with representatives from the six other Library of California regions. The meeting was held at the Hilton Hotel in Oakland. Present from LoC was Diana Paque. Highlights of the meeting were:
   • A Listserv (loca.net) will be started for the Regions to report events, milestones, and plans. Each Region's staff and Boards will be automatically added to the listserv.
   • Regions will meet at least two times per year. There will be one more meeting before September. LoC to pay the expenses.
   • Diana Paque asked for input on what the allocation formula should be for distribution of monies from the State.
   • Region reps suggested changes to the form for the Plan of Service, but Paque said that because of the time crunch, please use the format as much as possible.
   • Many issues were discussed including the use of fees. The way the law is written you can't charge fees for basic services. What is the basic level of quality? Could you charge for services above the basic? What can you do for $468,000? How can the law be carried out if no money? What about associate members? Do associate members join and get no services until approved by LoC?
   • Bessie stated that the LoC staff would share its discussion on the allocation issue before going to the LoC Board.
4. Annual Plan of Service Draft - The Plan of Service (LoC's form) was reviewed and revisions were suggested which will be incorporated into the document. The Plan is due at LoC April 1. Mary Lou prepared the document with LoC as the audience. Since this document will also be a public document, it was suggested leaving in the definitions of the laws as an appendix.
   • Administration - Listed first because of the form. When we make a version for public distribution, then we should emphasize service not admin. Sarah suggested adding an additional measure-that the network is organized and can respond with accurate data to its members' inquiries. On the budget in each category, we will drop all columns except the LoC funding column.
   • Telecommunications - Change the opening line to "will continue to implement and sustain . . .". Under Evaluation, don't be negative about the lack of funding. Move adding libraries from Admin to Telecommunications. (Question arose on grant money for Endeaver users for additional module. Can LSTA money be used? Bessie said that it is not clear how LSTA money can be used in LoC programs. LoC staff is trying to get clearer information on this.)
   • Regional Delivery - Move program on helping with uncataloged collections to telecommunications since this program relates more to the union catalog (Sarah). Move appropriate measures as well. Mention resource sharing and end user more frequently. (Carol, Terri). How much detail can we have in standards. Other regions have more history with delivery. TIE never delivered to the non-publics so we don't have statistics. Electronic delivery is amorphous at this time, so we can only monitor.
   • Training and Education - Take out the word technical in the first paragraph. Perhaps raise the cost of training from $10,000 to $15,000. Other costs? Air fares? Mailing? Perhaps decrease personnel costs in Regional Delivery.
     (Bessie reminded us that we are working with an arbitrary budget. How much money there will finally be and how it will be distributed is unknown.)
   • Information and Referral - What about question handling? We should take a wait and see position. Change our wording to more collaborating and more observing. Groups are just starting programs. 24/7 in Region 4 and Q&A cafe in Region 2. TIE has little history of question answering outside of the public libraries.
   • Public Awareness - Since we are doing much work under the grant now, we have put no operating costs here. Add to the second paragraph press awareness and media.
   • Summary Page - On the list of members, we will add a column to list the current numbers. (The Board at this point discussed what members we could hope to gain by 2002/2003. Possible academic libraries mentioned were Thomas Aquinas, Fielding, Antioch, Cal State Channel Islands. For public libraries there will be two new branches at Lompoc Public. Major growth area will be schools. Schools mentioned were: charter schools, Dunn, Laguna Blanca, Montecito Union, Cold Springs, Santa Barbara Elementary, Carpinteria, Ventura, Santa Barbara Christian. Special libraries mentioned were Raytheon, SB County Law, and Santa Barbara Art Museum.

   John asked if we need to vote to approve the Plan of Service before we submit to LoC on April 1. Could we take an electronic vote? The Bylaws (Terri) says that we vote by voice or ballot.

5. Committee Appointments - John reported that we had a large response to our request for committee members. Many were self-nominated and some names were recommended by the Library Directors. John will appoint all who applied. John said there is representation from each type of library on all the committees, except the Membership committee. Judith sent a message out to the public library directors and Carol suggested that Bryan Reynolds might volunteer someone for the Membership Committee since his library is not represented on any committees. Terri reported that Patty does not want to be on the Membership committee, but John would still like to call her. Bessie reminded us that committee nominee Joan Kennedy was a former LoC Board Member.

   When we send out the form letter to the committee appointees, we should clearly let them know what the next step is. It was decided (Bill's suggestion) that the committees would have short meetings at the Annual Meeting on April 19. Mary Lou will prepare info folders, including history and the current Plan of Service. Terri said she could have wine served on picnic benches and groups could gather there. The liaison's job is to get the committee started and communicate the committee's work to the Board. Everyone agreed that some of the work of the committees would have to be done electronically.

6. Annual Meeting Planning Committee - Copy of invitation was reviewed. Mary Lou and Terri will be helped by John and Carol. Suggestions for the Annual Meeting included having different people present the different parts of the plan. Judith suggested a Power Point presentation like David Dowell did at Cate. Sarah said we are past that, that we should move on. There will be no elections at the meeting. We should try to keep the meeting to an hour and the breakouts and wine and hors d'oeuvres for the second hour. The program will include intros, committee announcements, plan of service and update on grants. We may have the report from Information Partners on electronic readiness. The Board said Information Partners should identify in detail libraries with special needs.
7. Reports on Grants - Mary Lou reported that the web directory passwords and information on how to create a library's record has been mailed to all our members. Terri said she had trouble getting on the URL, but Mary Lou said it has worked for us and other libraries.

   The packet contained a draft of the letter that will be sent as soon as possible to our libraries on the new regional delivery service to and from member libraries.
   

8. Other - David Dowell has been invited to represent Gold Coast Library Network at a meeting
   on April 9-10 sponsored by The Stanford-California State Library Institute on 21st Century Librarianship, in partnership with the California Library Association and InfoPeople to look at what our profession's education and training needs are. Sarah heard about the meeting at UC. Staff was asked to check the LoC contact list to be sure that John Murray's name is listed for future correspondence.