Some libraries will be getting their high-speed internet service through Digital Broadband and some through HarvardNet, depending on which could provide the better service to each location.

117 PC’s were purchased through CLAN this time and payments are being received—thank you—since it was a large amount for CLAN to commit to. The pros and cons of flat panel monitors were discussed. Rick indicated that although they are very expensive now, there may be a purchase in them future where some options are offered, if the quantities are large enough.

ASH has a new director—Heather Field. Peter, Cindy, Rick and Ginny went to ASH and paid a visit to help Heather get oriented and know what her resources are.

Ameritech Library Services has been sold to private investors and is now called "Epixtech". Service is MUCH better since the change.

Peter is still looking into what it would cost to migrate to Horizon Sunrise. Without hardware it would be about $300K to $350K (the CLSI to DYNIX migration cost over $800K). The big question is how the move would be handled. CLAN might ask Champlin for the money in June 2000 and move the year after. Dave King is staying with Champlin, putting in less hours and "still loves us."

Peter explained why we had not chosen Network Plus for our new internet provider-basically they were non-responsive, competitors were offering better pricing, Network Plus didn’t meet some important deadlines we set. One important one was that E-rate applications had to be in January.

DSL is not yet available at all sites. Some will get point-to-point T1 lines, some will get 384K frame relay lines, some will get 56K lines.

IDS will still be the ISP for PRO’s ADSL line until June 2000 but all other sites will be switched over to either Digital Broadband or HarvardNet by that time, we hope. Because of the good rates we were able to negotiate our Champlin grant for the Internet service will cover us for more than one year.

If all the E-rate applications came through we could get as much as $250K. More realistically we might get as much as $150K.

We are not budgeting the E-rate money, however, since we cannot know an exact amount until we see it.

HarvardNet has begun installations.

DataComm is providing equipment and coordinating the installations.

Every PC that is connected to the CLAN network will need to have new network addresses once the new Internet providers are in place. If you have an NT network with DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) it will be easy. If you have 10 to 12 computers it might be easier to continue to use static IP addresses. If there more than that, DHCP is a good idea.

Digital Broadband (DBC) will begin wiring in March or April. If we’re done by June Peter will be happy.

The switches have been ordered. We got 60% off the original installation price. Peter got the price down from an initial $$3599 to a low $1995. Switches are replacing hubs. Switches are manageable—Peter can telnet to each one and troubleshoot, regulate bandwidth, etc. If a library needs 2 switches there are cascade modules available. Libraries will pay $200 for installation.

PC Reliance has been ordered. The disk arrived at PRO with no documentation or authorization code. Peter will load it on his PC, play with it, see what’s what. Then Rick will burn copies and we will proceed.

Final price negotiated down to $754.95 per PC Reliance—a HUGE savings.

We purchased 117 pc’s at $1499 each for 22 libraries for a total of $175,383.00. We actually got better monitors than originally specified at the original price. April purchase of Dell PC’s will probably be for a machine with a smaller footprint—by request of libraries with very limited space. CLAN will probably be conducting a PC purchase 4 times a year.

If a library gets lots of new PC’s it might want to use software called Norton Ghost to configure them. It allows you to configure one PC and copy the info to all the others. To use Norton Ghost without a LAN in place you would need Partition Magic software and a CD ROM recorder (CD-R). See Rick for details.

Anzio training was held at Department of Administration training area for 12 people. There is a waiting list begun for another session. Rick will poll members at the February meeting to see if there is more interest.

The training was a joint project of CLAN, OLIS and D of A.

Response from participants was very positive—except for the fire alarm that interrupted the training! More time for q and a was requested.

A revised Patron Registration form was presented by Ginny for the Circ Heads Committee. It was discussed and explained and the Steering Committee voted to recommend it be adopted. It will be presented to the membership at the February 10 meeting.

Doug told us WAR is most likely going to buy the equipment and materials for making photo id CLAN cards. It will cost about $14K for the setup and the first 10K cards. Doug believes the new cards will be a good positive id to eliminate people using someone else’s card and will make a nice id for children. WAR will not charge patrons for the cards. They plan to begin in April or May.

There was a discussion of the results of the Unique Debt Collection trial. Doug was very enthusiastic about the results since WAR received many previously lost or missing items back and was able to clean up many mysteries in the database.

A handout with statistics from the trial was distributed and based on that information and questions and answers the Steering Committee unanimously moved to highly recommend that CLAN contract for Unique Management’s services CLAN-wide, with specific stipulations, parameters and recommendations as follow:

Telecirc II:

It is running. It allows calls out to notify patrons of overdues and holds and allows calls in for renewals. There is no more ENS since Telecirc II does it all.

In order for more libraries to participate in Telecirc II (currently WAR, PRO and NPR are doing it) we will need to add phone lines at PRO. We have 5, we would need 8. The hardware would also need upgrading. Peter says Telecirc II will work best if it is done CLAN-wide. There are some costs involved, but not very much. They could be built into the CLAN fee schedule.

Karen asked if there is any way to do CLAN-wide purchasing of HP cartridges, and Connie said that state purchasing list prices are very low. Tom said he knows they are sold also at B.J.’s. Rick will check into it and report.