Ref Committee Meeting Minutes: August 2013

MOBAC Reference Committee meeting, 8/27/13, MPL

In attendance:  Inga Labeaune-MPL, Amy Chirman-MPC, Sarah Dahlen-CSUMB, Be Astengo -MCFL, Lisa Duff-Salinas, Mary Elturk-PG,  Jean Chapin-HML, Janet Bombard-HML, Deborah Stephens-HCL, Betty Mason- SBCFL, Frank Gravier-UCSC

Call to order 2:05 pm

 

Minutes of June 25, 2013 approved with spelling corrections.

 

Public comments: none

 

REPORTS FROM MOBAC COMMITTEES

Administrative Council: From August 2013 meeting:

Committees feel it is important for the Admin Committee liaison to be at the committee meetings. Teresa Landers of SCPL is Janet Bombard’s back up. If neither one is available, they can ask the director of the library where the meeting is being held to be present. They are seeking other ways that a liaison may be present, such as video conferencing.

 

Strategic planning begins early spring 2014.  On February 28, 2014, Jane Light will facilitate a meeting to draft the MOBAC strategic Plan. This will be at the Marina Branch of MCFL. One of the main questions they will address is what will happen to MOBAC money when its money runs out? How will it function?

PLP report on Enki – a new eBook platform from Califa. Some libraries are testing it- Contra Costa County Library system and San Francisco Public. It has 10,000 titles, not compatible with Kindle and no audiobooks and has many independent book titles. The platform may be offered in other California libraries soon and the first year will be free and paid for by PLP.

 

PLP has introduced the idea of having different library consortiums take their workshops on the road by either having the same presentations and presenters travel or by putting a blueprint together of workshops and having other professionals in those library areas do the presentations. PLP would pay costs. They are interested in having MOBAC present in the East Bay and South Bay areas. They asked that we discuss this in our meeting.

Members of the reference committee discussed the pros and cons of being able to take this on the road. It is a good idea, but might be hard to pull of logistically. Some of the presenters that we have had at our workshops would find it hard to travel outside the area for the presentations due to time constraints and travel restrictions. This would be an all day presentation in the Bay Area versus a half a day in Monterey – thus bringing up time constraint issues for staff. MOBAC reference suggests that the admin counsel could make an ad hoc committee to look at this more in depth. Admin and Reference committee could also create a list of topics that could be adaptable for a traveling workshop.

 

CENIC is undergoing a survey to public libraries to show there is a need for high speed statewide broadband for California libraries.

 

Admin Council will put it on their agenda for their next meeting to discuss if a Circulation group be made and/or have an email reflector.

 

Tech Committee: Writing for the web workshop will take place October 18th at MPC from 9-1.

 

ILL Committee: Drafting report to council, and will get back to revising the ILL manual at the next meeting. Irma Fink is the new chair.

 

SPLAMBA: They are putting together a booklist for science fiction. On September 20th at Aptos branch of SCPL they will be having a workshop on the Common Core and how it relates to public libraries.

 

OLD BUSINESS

Future of Reference Workshop- October 4, 2013 at MPC –  Will be 8:30 AM-12 PM. Will consist of Judit Sedillos from NPS on collecting statistics for databases, marketing your databases by Heather Norquist from SCPL, a panel discussion on the future of reference. This will include the questions-What is the current state of reference at your library? Do you just “Google-it?” How does ILL fit into how you do reference services at your library? And where is the future of reference going? Followed by a presentation on what is new and trending-including Freegal, Indieflix, and Zinio. People are encouraged to bring reference books or laptop computers/tablets to show their library website and show others what is new and trending in their library.

 

NEW BUSINESS

Annual Report to the Admin Council- Inga will fill in the first question. Second question of What activities are you planning? Annual Future of Reference plus 2 other general interest workshops for librarians. We will use feedback from October Future of Reference workshop to plan future workshops. Third question of what concerns do you have- as libraries leave OCLC, what will happen, libraries leaving ILL and, isolation from PLP, concern about funding. New Concerns- What happens when MOBAC funding ends? What will MOBAC look like and how will we provide our workshops? Staff attendance at workshops going down due to staffing/time constraints.

REFERENCE SHARES / PROBLEMS

Covered California is a marketplace for people to look at insurance companies available under the Affordable Health Care Act. There is a free Infopeople webinar for libraries on Monday, September 9 on the Affordable Health Care Act.

A community partners rep will give an overview of Covered California on Friday, September 6, from 10-12 at the Social Services Building, 1000 S. Main St. in Salinas.

MPC reducing hours from 8 PM to 7 PM Monday-Thursday.

 

NEWS FROM LIBRARIES

Meeting adjourned.

 

Minutes by Lisa Duff

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