NOVEL Steering Committee Conference Call
Wednesday, May 18, 2005, 10:00-11:00 A.M., Room 10C47

PRESENT: Baaklini, Barraco, Courtney, Desch, Ericson, Hatch, Hiebing, Janowsky, Knight, Little, McCain, McDonald, Redmond, Shaloiko, Storms, Todd, Welch

ABSENT: Alrutz, Bolton, Borges, Crumlish, Cunningham, Duncan, Firestone, Huxley, Kadamus, Kaplan, Kuntz, Lynch, Meierhoffer, Roe, Stripling, Walsh

RECORDER: Deitz

Welcome/Roll Call/Approval of Minutes -- Dottie Hiebing

Ms. Hiebing welcomed everyone to the conference call, particularly our newest Steering Committee member, Christine McDonald. She then asked for a roll call of participants. The March 24, 2005 minutes were approved--Gail Barraco moved to approve and Randy Ericson seconded.

State Librarian's Report -- Janet Welch

Mrs. Welch asked Carol Desch to update the group on Federal LSTA funding. Although the President has proposed an increase in LSTA funding to $221.33 million, New York State would not get a large increase due to a formula change which will entitle smaller states to larger base grants. Keep in mind that the cut in state funds will impact LSTA funding in Fall 2007.

The proposed five percent cut in state funding has been restored. New Century Libraries has put forward a budget request for $14 million for NOVEL for the last several years. It will be in play again next year, with $5 million for databases and the remainder for library systems to improve their access to local NOVEL databases.

Promoting NOVEL -- Considerable progress has been made in getting out word about NOVEL through State Library LSTA grants and NOVEL training sessions conducted with legislative staff. Mrs. Welch encouraged members of the Steering Committee to continue meeting with legislative staff in such a positive way.

There has been recent media coverage about NOVEL: NPR, Albany, and the Daily Freeman (Kingston) article entitled, "An Untangled Web-Internet Access Widens in Public Venues." Mr. Ericson suggested that the text of the article be sent out to NYLINE.

ACTION: Carol Desch will send the article out on NYLINE.

Ms. Hiebing suggested sending a joint message to library systems from the New York State Library and the NOVEL Steering Committee mentioning how helpful the training and demos have been to legislative staff and, if at all possible, continue to train legislative staff. The message should mention the effectiveness of the recent media coverage.

ACTION: Dottie Hiebing and State Library staff will work on a joint NYLINE message to library systems from the New York State Library and the NOVEL Steering Committee mentioning how helpful the training and demos have been to legislative staff and, if at all possible, continue to train legislative staff.

Ms. McDonald suggested that staff of Republican representatives who have received training could call or write the Governor in support of NOVEL and CDLC ads could mention testimonials from local legislators or local citizens. Ms. Knight suggested that testimonials from legislative staff could be shared with the Governor's staff.

ACTION: Mary Redmond will pursue targeting the Governor's staff for NOVEL demos and training.

Portal Update -- Mary Redmond

According to Liza Duncan, there is a good possibility that there will be a demonstration page available by the end of the week to search across a number of NOVEL databases. As soon as it is available, it will be shared with the group. John Richardson, President of einfo Dynamics LLC, is still working on the implementation of the technical details with Liza Duncan, NOVEL database vendors and portal vendors.

Driver License Access -- A notice was sent to the system directors some time ago inviting them to try it and share it with their members. The notice will be sent again. A number of systems (e.g., CDLC) have put it on their web page.

ACTION: Mary Redmond will send the notice to the system directors again inviting them to try the driver license access page and share it with their members.

Databases -- Kate Storms

Ms. Storms provided an update on the NOVEL vendors: EBSCO and Thomson-Gale. Newsbank, which has up to 28 New York State newspapers, recently provided a demo for New York State Library staff.

NOVEL Training Grants -- Linda Todd

NOVEL invitational training grants training period ends May 31. By the end of June, everyone will have submitted their final report, providing an update of a variety of NOVEL training activities. Linda will provide a preliminary report for the September 14 meeting based on her review of the final reports, indicating "best practices," what did and did not work, and some indication of the number and kinds systems that will continue the activities begun by these projects.

ACTION: Linda Todd will provide a preliminary report for the September 14 meeting based on her review of the final reports.

NYLA Poster Session -- Linda Todd/Kate Storms

The New York State Library will have a NOVEL display. If anyone has an idea/ideas for new and different for the poster session, please contact Linda Todd. Volunteers will be needed! If you plan to be in Buffalo for the NYLA Conference, please consider volunteering. Thanks to Wanda Knight, our first volunteer.

ACTION: Contact Linda Todd to volunteer for the NYLA Poster Session.

On Thursday morning, there will be a slot focusing on New Century Libraries, which could also include information about NOVEL. Carol Desch will provide additional information via listserv. Kate Storms will have a program on Thursday at 4:45 PM, which will illustrate the Help Desk on a typical day.

ACTION: Carol Desch will provide additional information on the NCL program at NYLA via the listserv.

*****Speakers Bureau*****

NEXT MEETING:

Wednesday, September 14, 10:30 A.M., Albany Public Library

ACTION: Lorraine Deitz will check whether the Café at APL is open.

ACTION ITEMS:

• Carol Desch will send the article from the Daily Freeman out on NYLINE.
• The State Library and the NOVEL Steering Committee will send a joint message to library systems mentioning how helpful the training and demos have been to legislative staff and, if at all possible, continue to train legislative staff. The message should mention the effectiveness of the recent media coverage.
• Mary Redmond will pursue targeting the Governor's staff for NOVEL demos and training.
• Mary Redmond will send the notice to the system directors again inviting them to try the driver license access page and share it with their members.
• Linda Todd will provide a preliminary report on the NOVEL Training Grants for the September 14 meeting based on her review of the final reports.
• Contact Linda Todd to volunteer for the NYLA Poster Session.
• Carol Desch will provide additional information on the NCL program at NYLA via the listserv.
• Lorraine Deitz will check whether the Café at the Albany Public Library is open.

The conference call ended at 10:50 a.m.