NMRLS Newsletter - October 2008

NMRLS Executive Board Meeting
Thursday, September 18, 2008

Summary of Meeting and Electronic Vote

The meeting was held without a quorum. Subsequent to the meeting the Executive Board voted electronically to approve the action items listed below.

Approved a One-Time Waiver Application for Certification from Melrose High School

The Board heard presentations from the Superintendent of Melrose Schools, the Principal of the Melrose High School, and the Library Media Specialist at Melrose High School regarding their request for a one-time waiver for the current school year. The High School now has a certified librarian whose duties are split between the High School and the Middle School in an 80%/20% split. The two schools used to share a physical library; however, since the new construction of the Middle School, they no longer share said space.

The district views the provision of excellent library services as critical to their students' education. They see not having a full-time certified librarian at the High School as a significant loss and stated that funding for the position appears in their budget for next school year.

The Melrose Superintendent asked the NMRLS Executive Board to approve the one-time one-year waiver for Melrose High School, to help them get over this last hurdle, so that they can remain a NMRLS member until they meet the eligibility requirement next year.

Jeffrey Klapes thanked the representatives from Melrose for coming out to make their presentation. After their departure, a discussion ensued among Board members. The Regional Administrator indicated that he was inclined to accept the waiver request as the funding for the position is in the budget for next year and due to the joint nature of staffing the two schools, the Board would like to verify certification at both the High and Middle Schools next September.

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners encourages sponsorship and partnership agreements that increase the level of services available to Massachusetts residents, offer new resources that may not be offered otherwise, and support awareness of libraries and library services. The MBLC asked for comments and consensus of all of the regions to set up a policy and procedures to govern such sponsorships.

The Regional Administrator reported that the statewide contract for EBSCO Literary Reference Center is in jeopardy because of funding cuts in the relevant state line items. The MBLC has asked the regions to contribute in order to keep the subscription going for the rest of this fiscal year. The NMRLS Reference Committee recommended that NMRLS contribute $18,000 to this effort, either from regular budget funds, or if necessary from earned income.

The Regional Administrator reviewed the following discussion points regarding the FY2009 Budget Revision, #1 (attached):

Delivery - $478,500 includes enough for our current contract with gas prices up to about $5.00 per gallon. It is not enough to cover a volume increase of 10 percent.

MassCat reduced from $70,000 to $40,000 to reflect lower than anticipated costs for migration to Koha (open source software).

Web Development - $10,000 to develop and design a new site to include some WordPress elements.

Some of our operating costs will decrease due to the new copier maintenance agreement and new telephone/internet provider (Comcast).

The Assistant Regional Administrator presented the following Slate of Candidates to be approved by the membership in November:

Affiliation Type	Member	Library	City	Position		Term
At Large	Donna Beales	Lowell General Hospital	Lowell	Past-President	11/2009 2^nd term
Special	Sidney Berger	Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum	Salem	Board Member	11/2009 1st term
Special	Barbara Brown	Lawrence History Center	Lawrence	Board Member	11/2010 1^st term
Academic	John Callahan	University of Massachusetts	Lowell	Board Member	11/2009 1^st term
School	Susan Chase	The Governors Academy	Byfield	Board Member	11/2010 1^st term
Lay Representative	Phil Conti	n/a	Carlisle	Treasurer	11/2010 2^nd term
Academic	Nancy George	Salem State College	Salem	Secretary	11/2010 3^rd term
Public	Diane Giarrusso	Boxford Town Libraries	Boxford	VP/ President-Elect	11/2011 2^nd term
Public	Lori Hodgson	Burlington Public Library	Burlington	Board Member	11/2009 1^st term
Public	Jeffrey Klapes	Lucius Beebe Memorial Library	Wakefield	President	11/2010 2^nd term
Public	Nadine Mitchell	Lynn Public Library	Lynn	Board Member	11/2009 1^st term
School	Anne Spraker	Masconomet Regional High School	Topsfield	Board Member	11/2010 2^nd term

The Board discussed the ballot initiative to eliminate the state income tax. The Board agreed that NMRLS should make an official statement as a group on the initiative petition to eliminate the state income tax (Question 1). While we cannot explicitly tell people how to vote, the Regional Administrator has confirmed that we are quite able to make a statement outlining what we see as the potential impact on library services and particularly those that are provided at the regional level. The MBLC's statement from a couple of weeks ago is attached.

After an initial draft from the Legislative Education Committee, and several comments from various people, Jeffrey Klapes synthesized all discussion into the following position statement:

"The NMRLS Executive Board believes that the enactment of Question One, (elimination of the Massachusetts state income tax) will have a severe negative impact on libraries and library service in northeast Massachusetts. Among the immediate results will be the elimination of funding for the most used services, such as interlibrary delivery, support for shared catalogs, and online research databases. The longer term impact will be devastating and eliminate the many gains libraries have made through decades of cooperative efforts, forcing libraries to survive individually and alone.

Elimination of the state income tax will not decrease the need or desire for library services within communities, but merely shift the responsibility of fund provision from the state, which uses its collective purchasing power to maximize cost-savings and efficiency, to individual communities, which will ultimately pay more and get less."

The Regional Administrator reviewed the following points regarding the FY2010 Budget:

Delivery - $477,000 includes enough for our current contract with gas prices up to about $5.00 per gallon. While this figure is $1,500 lower than fy2009, we hope to carry over some funding from fy2009 to supplement it. We will need to make significant adjustments if we reach a volume threshold increase of ten percent.

Personnel - includes a pool for merit and cost of living and allows for a 15 percent increase in health care costs.

Space Rental - at this point we are not certain of lease costs in fy2010. Our current lease expires in April 2009. I have initiated discussions with our landlord, Robie Properties, to begin negotiations for a renewal. I have also begun exploring prices at other sites for comparisons.

The Plan of Service draft document has not changed significantly since last year

Annual Meeting & Luncheon
Thursday, November 13, 2008
11:30 AM - 3:30 PM
The Stevens Estate at Osgood Hill, North Andover
Register Online!