1. CALL TO ORDER: This regularly scheduled meeting of the OSL Steering Committee was called to order by President Susan Aylward at 9: 40 AM in the Ocean State Libraries Office.

Present were:  Cheryl Abouelaziz, Jon Anderson, Susan Aylward, Howard Boksenbaum, Becky Boragine, Joan Gillespie, Shirley Long, Laura Marlane, Leslie McDonough, Amy Neilson, Leslie Page, Eileen Socha, and Ulla Virks.

Also Present:  John Carney, Christopher LaRoux, Karen Taylor and Sharon Fredette.

2) MINUTES OF THE AUGUST 7, 2008 AND MAY 22, 20008 MEETINGS:

Voted to approve the August minutes on a motion by Ulla Virks, seconded by Laura Marlane. The May minutes were approved on a motion by Eileen Socha, seconded by Leslie McDonough.

3) TREASURERS REPORT: Shirley Long
There was no new report since the quarterly OSL meeting.

4) EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS REPORT: Joan Gillespie
Joan's report addressed the following issues:
Change in Fine Categories: At the last steering meeting it was asked why new fine categories had been created for individual libraries. A few exceptions have been made for individual libraries at their request.  A list of what fine categories are available will be posted.
Thumb Drives: The third order for thumb drives will be going in. The current cost is $5.25 each.
Installation: Encore installation and kickoff has been delayed since we are working with the Beta team. The new dates are November 18th at 10:00am for the kickoff and January for a possible system start.
Velti: OSL is looking into the possibility that this company can be used to send text messages to patrons. Hopefully this can replace teleforms at some point in the future.
Bandwidth: OSL is working hard on a solution to our bandwidth problems. See also Old Business.
Disaster Recovery: Has been looking at what needs to be done to safeguard OSL's information. Joan has asked for a quote from Innovative on a two day workshop.

5) System Staff Reports:  The Steering Committee did not have questions for Joan regarding the written reports from the OSL System staff that had been distributed prior to the meeting.

6) Lib Futures Committee Report: Eileen Socha
The Legislative Commission met on September 18th. The report written on the history of the commission and what they have done so far has been approved. Since Peter Lewiss is not running for reelection Betsy Dennigan said that she will lead the commission as chairwoman for a while. The Commission term has expired and Rep. Dennigan will introduce legislation in January to make the Karla Harry Commission permanent. Howard Boksenbaum has agreed to chair an ad hoc subcommittee on the structure of all state library funding and report back to the commission.

7) Old Business:

a) Streaming video/bandwidth: We have temporarily increased our allotted bandwidth to 100mb in hopes of rectifying our current bandwidth need. We have at times spiked to 70mb.  Providence bandwidth will begin going directly to RINET rather than accessing RINET via OSL like they and the other libraries had been doing. They will still have the same firewall protections. RINET has offered this change at no additional charge.

b) Review of Pricing Model for Fee structure: Susan Aylward
A new formula was presented at this meeting.  This fee structure includes commerce, T1 lines and population to determine a library's OSL fees.  This structure takes the emphasis off of locations and sets the base statistics for five years.  Motion made by Leslie McDonough, seconded by Laura Marlane, to approve the fee structure for presentation on October 10th as submitted.

8) New Business:

a) Overdrive: A motion was made by Leslie McDonough, seconded by Eileen Socha, to take a vote at the October 23rd Steering meeting on the Overdrive committee's recommendation for each library to pay $122.45 to provide Always Available items to our patrons.  Currently OSL subscribes to two heavily used subscriptions at $3,000 a piece.  These are now funded by Providence with a grant they received.  

b) Changing the OCLC Symbol from PRV and sharing our holdings:
After looking into having the Library system's holdings changed to RIOSL or OSLRI, OSL was informed it would cost $228,000 to switch this information. However, OCLC offered a onetime reclamation project that will update our holdings at OCLC and would be completed for free if OSL cleans up its data and promises to maintain our holdings with accuracy.  The OCLC symbol would be reset during the reclamation project.  So far we have received a quote from one company, Backstage, for doing data clean up and preparing our data for the reclamation project, who can complete the work for $40,000.  This one time expense can be covered by a drop in the money set aside to pay Atrion for this year's coverage.  (see below) A vote will be taken at the next Steering meeting.

c) Setting a reentry fee for libraries that withdraw from OSL
It was decided that this wasn't the best idea, since it may have a negative impact on a library's ability to reinstitute library services to their constituents. It was suggested instead, that if your town is not a member of OSL, then your constituents will not be allowed to use the library system's services.  All patron cards from a departing library would be cancelled in the system.  This will be discussed a the November Quarterly Meeting, and if needed, a committee will be established to look at this beginning in January.

d) Atrion: OSL is currently using Atrion for monitoring and backup.  We are dropping the monitoring service since Peter, Ken and RINET are also providing this service.  We want to buy spare equipment so that we no longer need the replacement policies we have been buying from Atrion.  We will need roughly $13,000 to buy all necessary spares, while Atrion is budgeted at $58,000.  Buying the spares and doing our own monitoring will allow us to cancel this contract altogether. A vote will be taken at the next Steering meeting.  

ADJOURNMENT;

The meeting was adjourned at 11:40AM

Respectfully submitted:
Becky A. Boragine, Secretary
Next Meeting: Steering October 23, 2008 at 9:30 AM in the OSL Offices