library of california
Planning Region VII
Ventura + Santa Barbara + San Luis Obispo
REGION VII CORE PLANNING GROUP
NOVEMBER 18, 1999
CHAIR: David Dowell Cuesta College
ATTENDEES: Kevin Bontenbal Cuesta College
Marcia Frasier Santa Maria Public Library
John Murray Westmont College
Myra Nicholas Santa Barbara Public Library
Sarah Pritchard University of California Santa Barbara
Jean Scully San Luis Obispo City/County Library
Judith Segel Black Gold Cooperative Library System
Terri Sheridan Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Nina Taylor Lompoc Public Library
Jonathan Trumbull Righetti High School
CALL TO ORDER 1:00 p.m. by David Dowell, Presiding, at San Luis Obispo Library.
INTRODUCTIONS
1. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
The Agenda was adopted as printed.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF OCTOBER 28, 1999
The minutes were accepted as posted on the Region VII web page.
3. BLACK GOLD UPDATE. Report by Brian Reynolds, Chair, Black Gold Administrative
Council.
Brian discussed how Black Gold will change as Library of California begins to operate. Some Black Gold staff members may migrate to Region VII. Black Gold is likely to remain an automation consortium. It may remain a public library caucus for management issues. It might continue making van deliveries. Many more schools are expected to use the new services than have been served by public libraries in the past.
Brian expressed concern about whether Region VII will receive sufficient funds to operate according to plan, whether some Black Gold staff will lose their jobs, and whether Region VII will be ready to submit its network application in March.
4. REPORTS BY THE SUBCOMMITTEES
A. Bylaws: Octavio Sifuentes, chair. Report by David Dowell in Octavio’s absence.
The committee is waiting for a bylaws template from the legal committee. Octavio will report at the December meeting. Octavio can be contacted at fax number 805.648.8900 or email: [email protected].
Board of Directors: The minimum number of members is five, including one member from each type of library – special, school, academic, and public.
The bylaws committee will clarify the relationship between the Board and the Council. The law talks about the Council as an administrative, not a legislative body. The Council has responsibility for many functions, such as adopting a budget.
Questions and comments:
i. Does there need to be a Board member representing Black Gold?
ii. Should we differentiate between two-year and four-year colleges in Board representation? iii. Should there be geographic representation on the Board?
iv. It will be important to provide for amendment of the bylaws.
v. Are officers elected from the Board? What’s the pool of potential officers? Generally someone who’s served on the Board is chosen, but this is not a written requirement.
vi. How long will Board members serve? Generally there’s a range of two to three years. How long will officers serve? We will need to provide for an orderly transition.
B. Membership: Patty Allaback, chair. Report by Terri Sheridan in Patty’s absence. Patty Allaback can be contacted at fax number 805.684.8940 or email: [email protected].
Patty has prepared a packet, taking the first page, which lists membership requirements, from the State Handbook, and the second two pages, Documentation of Eligibility, from the ILL reimbursement program. On the form libraries can summarize the types of services they provide, identify the vendor if they have remote access, and identify a consortium they are part of, if any.
The resource-sharing guidelines have not yet been developed, so institutions signing up will probably be asked to agree to the guidelines as they will be developed. We need to ask how much sharing of materials and resources an institution is willing to do. We need to post on ListServ an explanation of the guidelines for sharing we have so far. Some guidelines are in the Regulations, and we need to list them for people/institutions that don’t have a copy of the Regulations.
C. Communication: Myra Nicholas, chair. Myra can be contacted at fax number 805.962.6304 or email: [email protected].
i. ListServ and Web Page Update – Judith Segel and Kevin Bontenbal.
Myra has printed some web pages from the various Massachusetts regions, titled The Six Multi-Type Massachusetts Regional Library Systems. The web pages include lists of services, activities and resources of each region. We can see what the various regions have done that might be used in our region and examples of web page designs. Myra favors using what we can from other regional web sites to avoid “reinventing the wheel.”
Myra stated that each region should have a link to the Library of California web site; there are links for some California regions, including Heartland, Peninsula and Gold Coast.
Kevin Bontenbal reported that the student(s) working on a web site for Region VII were required to do storyboards for class. He brought a copy of the first page of the site, which can be changed if we want. Comments from the group regarding the page include approval of the index on the left side of the page, although perhaps it could be condensed, and desire to see the three-counties logo clarified, as it is difficult to see. Next links will be inserted in the web page.
Judith Segel reported that our domain name is registered and paid for. The name is goldcoastlibraries.org. RAIN will develop a place for the name. We will also get a Gold Coast account (we’ve been using the TIE account). The account should be ready by December 1st, and we will need to transfer from TIE. Judith Segel will send a message to ListServ as soon as the account is ready to use.
Kevin Bontenbal stated that at some point in the future we might have to get our own ListServ, rather than use Cuesta College’s ListServ. At that time we would ask RAIN to check out software for a dedicated server. Only 200 members are allowed for any one ListServ, and there are now 67.
ii. Region VII Print Newsletter – Status Report
Judith Segel and Myra Nicholas held a telephone conference, during which they decided to ask Jeanne Callahan to draft news articles for the Region VII newsletter. Judith Segel has some interesting articles from the State Library Conference that could be summarized to help people understand Library of California and Region VII. The newsletter is to be printed on one 11”x17” sheet, folded, and folded again for mailing.
The newsletter will be designed especially for those who don’t understand Library of California, light in tone so it will be appealing to read. One target group will be school superintendents or principals, in addition to school librarians. There may be articles from the State Library that will be of interest to active members of the Core Planning Group, as well. When we send the second issue of the newsletter we will include a reply card asking whether the recipient wants to continue to receive the newsletter.
The Himmel Report is online, for those who want the entire report. Himmel and Wilson’s Interlibrary Loan/Direct Loan Study: Interim Report can be accessed online at: http://www.execpc.com/himmel/CAinterim.htm.
iii. Press Releases.
Region VII needs to write very carefully crafted press releases designed to reach the general public. Another target will be people who are members of public library boards and boards of institutions, as well as friends of the library groups. We want to inform the broader community, although they themselves will not be able to join the network. Some schools and friends groups would include information about Library of California in their newsletters if we provided the information to them. It was suggested that we start with a one-page press release, perhaps with short paragraphs about the benefits available to various types of libraries.
Including an anecdote or story may help to interest more people. They will want to know what benefits are available from Library of California. Region VII will want to communicate the idea that we’re meeting the challenge for recent changes in the information world. We want to counter the idea held by some people that all the information they need can be obtained from the Internet. We also want to reach business people and software entrepreneurs who think everything they need can be accessed through computers.
John Murray will draft a first press release to present at the December meeting, although press releases will be crafted to include library names in each local area or county. We will need to modify press releases for our own areas. It was decided not to post a skeleton press release on ListServ, as it will be available only to members of the Core Planning Group.
Perhaps one person will be designated for each county or newspaper to coordinate press releases. There are many small newspapers, which are more likely to give space for our information. A list of local newspapers can be obtained from local colleges.
We will contact the person in charge of media at the State Library to obtain a schedule of public appearances by Kevin Starr, a California historian who is also head of the State Library.
D. Transition of Services: Jean Scully, chair. Jean Scully can be contacted at fax number 805.781.1166 or email: [email protected]. Discussion by this committee centered on the county groups, discussed below.
5. AWARENESS EVENTS AND CONTACTS
A. County Focus Meetings
There are now lists of institutions (Core Planning Group and information only) for each county, sorted by zip code. If desired, mailing labels for these lists can be made available by the Region VII office staff. The county meetings are designed to include those who find the travel too far to attend our regular meetings.
Copies of the San Luis Obispo County list were taken by David Dowell. On November 22, David Dowell and Bill Stokes, and possibly Jean Scully will be attending a school meeting for their area. There is a Ventura group meeting, consisting of Joanie Galang, Starrett Kreissman and Barbara Murray; each will receive a copy of the Ventura County list. We need someone to coordinate the Santa Barbara County meetings, which may be split into North County and South County groups. Each attendee from Santa Barbara County was given a Santa Barbara list.
At each small group meeting we can explain how the Library of California that will be available to the citizens of each county. People can continue using whatever library they’re comfortable in, but through that library they can have access to a large amount of material. (“One library, 8,000 doors.”) We’re hoping a lot of information can be shared through the Web.
Online Information Services: Some providers would include all Region VII member libraries under one subscription, as Library of California, and others would not. We will want as broad a group as possible included, with the most access possible. Anne Marie Gold has said that the State Library would research the best price and then Region VII can decide which services to subscribe to. The number of users has an effect on price for some online information service providers.
B. TIE Annual Meeting Small Group Discussions – Reports.
Reports from the following small group discussions are available from the Region VII office: public libraries, school libraries, and academic libraries.
6. PRESENTATION OF AWARD FOR THE REGION VII NAME CONTEST – Marcia Frasier presenting. For the winning name suggestion GOLD COAST LIBRARY NETWORK, Nina Taylor, of Lompoc Public Library, was presented with a mug inscribed with Gold Coast Library Network, Library of California, Region VII with a background of a wave. She also received Starbucks Gold Coast Blend Coffee, Gold Line Darjeeling tea, coffee and tea filters, along with a basket to hold everything.
7. LEGAL FORMS OF STRUCTURE UPDATE – David Dowell.
David Dowell is hoping we’ll have a template for the bylaws by December 1999. If he hasn’t heard anything by then he will contact the lawyer. The lawyers advise that we push forward with a Plan of Service and Bylaws. We will get these documents approved by the Library Board first, and then apply for non-profit status, which will probably be fairly easy. The cost would be approximately $1800.
8. LIBRARY OF CALIFORNIA Nov. 11 & 12 BOARD MEETING REPORT – Joanne Kennedy. Report by Judith Segel in Joanne’s absence. Joanne thought that the Board meeting was very productive. Joan Frye Williams, an information technology consultant, verbally presented her report, Linked Systems Study Update with Recommendations for the Future. Diana Paque is the new Library of California Director. We can send our questions to her or to Bessie Condos Tichauer.
9. OTHER BUSINESS
A. There will be a TIE Board Meeting on the morning of December 16, 1999 before the Core Planning Group afternoon meeting, at the Museum of Natural History. Lunch arrangements are pending: either attendees go out for lunch or bring in box lunches. If box lunches are to be used, Terri Sheridan will have to know which people want box lunches, even if they attend only one of the meetings.
B. Future Meetings of the Core Planning Group:
· December 16, 1999 Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
· January 27, 2000 Ventura Foster Library - Tentative
· February 24, 2000 To be Announced
· March 23, 2000 Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
· April 27, 2000 To be Announced
· May 25, 2000 Righetti High School
These meetings will begin at 1:00 p.m.
10. NEXT MEETING: Thursday, December 16, 1999 at 1:00 p.m. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m. Recorded by Jeanne Callahan