Document#07-12

 

 

Director’s Report

February 2007

 

E-Rate

 

Our 2007-2008 E-Rate application has been filed.  We have 6 funding requests totaling $75,207.10.  We now have a co-terminus 36 month contract for all of our circuits (excepting Plainfield which does not participate in our E-Rate filing).  In the future we should be better positioned to take advantage of telecommunications opportunities.

 

Unicorn Downtime

 

The Sirsi Unicorn system experienced downtime recently due to the failure of several hard disks.  Sirsi and SUN are currently assessing what caused this significant failure.  We were somewhat hampered as we dealt with this problem by the Silver maintenance agreement we have for the SUN hardware.  Silver service is 9 to 5 M-F with a 4 hour turnaround time guarantee. 

 

SAM Upgrade

 

Mike Bagileo will be working with the staff from Comprise and the Middlesex Public Library to install SAM version 8.5.  Middlesex Public will be the first LMxAC library on this new version of SAM.  A migration schedule for all other SAM libraries is currently being developed.

 

Dunellen

 

In the last month we have completed loading the Dunellen records and conducted circulation training.  Dunellen is now circulating on Unicorn.

 

Federated Searching

 

After reviewing other options it seems clear to me that the vision we had of a federated searching environment, with a shared group of databases and highly customized add on databases per library, is not doable in the current marketplace for the funds we allocated.  The cost savings we could achieve would come from joint negotiation for specific databases.  For now I recommend that we implement Central Search from Serials Solutions and create an LMxAC federated searching site that provides all members access to the databases purchased by the state.  Our original investment in the Single Search software was $ 16,646.  Sirsi quotes this service now at $22,000 but since we have pre-paid we are entitled to the original price for the first year.  Once our central site is created libraries may elect to ‘add on’ their own databases according to the following schedule (note that all costs are annual costs):

 

·        If the library has 1 - 5 additional databases to access the cost is $1,408 
 
·        If the library has 6 - 10 additional databases to access the cost is $2,816
 
·        If the library has 11 - 15 additional databases to access the cost is $4,224
 
·        If the library has 16 - 20 additional databases to access the cost is $5,632.

 

LMxAC would incorporate the ongoing costs for the central federated searching site into our operational budget and individual libraries would be responsible for the ongoing costs associated with their add-on site.

 

I do think that this is a transitional technology and that we will be looking at more options regarding federated searching and database integration in the near future.  Some libraries, however, need access to this technology now so I think this is the best way to move forward.  The central federated searching site will serve the needs of most of the public libraries and those that need more will have the opportunity to build on what we do together.

 

Sirsi Meeting

 

On February 7th I joined representatives from BCCLS, MAIN and PALS Plus in a meeting with Sirsi representatives to discuss a number of issues including:

 

  • The high cost to add new members
  • Sirsi’s policy when consortia members wish to become standalone libraries
  • Future of development important to consortia (like integration of the concepts of FRBR into OPAC displays), the status of the consortia version of the Enterprise Portal Solution, etc
  • Possibility of working together to test some future developments

 

The meeting was very successful and I hope to be able to report back on an improvement regarding the first issue very soon.

 

BWI Discount

 

BWI will be giving a 20% discount on playaways to all LMxAC members.  I requested this discount when I learned they offered BCCLS members a similar discount.  They agreed to offer it to our members as well.

 

Activity Report

 

In December we made 32 troubleshooting visits to 15 different libraries.  Other measures of activity include:

 

1.      New Items Added                                              

a.      LMxAC Members                                    25758

b.     Dunellen                                                   31630

c.      Total                                                          57388

2.      Bib Records Added by LMxAC               2998                                    

3.      New Bib Records Added (Total)                       14055 (Includes 9911 records from Dunellen)

4.      New User Records Added                                   6369                                

5.      Brief Record Upgraded to full MARC                   103

6.      Duplicate records merged                                   1654

7.      Inventory Reports                                                    139

8.      API reports                                                                   7

            9.   Downtime:    System was down for approximately 14 hours between January 26th and 27th.  System was down for 9.30 hours on Monday, February 5th while SirsiDynix and Sun staff worked to repair a bad disk.  

 

Meetings

 

In the last month I have participated in the following meetings:

           

            Visit to Milltown                                                         Jan.   9

            Visit to Piscataway                                                   Jan. 10

            Meeting with Bib Serv. Committee             Jan. 12

Visit to Somerville                                                     Jan. 12

            Conference Call ATX Communications                 Jan. 16

            Conference Call ATX Communications                 Jan. 17

            Meeting with Personnel Committee                        Jan. 25

Meeting with Finance Committee                           Jan. 25

            LMX Meeting                                                             Jan. 26

            Visit to Metuchen                                                      Jan. 31

            Conference Call with Comprise                              Feb.   2

            Meet with Consortia Directors & Sirsi                    Feb.   6

            Meet with representative of BWI                             Feb.   8

            Visit to Edison                                                           Feb.   9

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Eileen M. Palmer

Executive Director