SWAN Board,
I informed Melissa Gardner of this today, but I am still waiting on the draft agreement from SirsiDynix to arrive. I was told we would expect it late tonight, so I will prepare to have this ready to review tomorrow as handouts.
Just letting you know in case you have wondered where the agreement is at!
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
Hi All,
I am sorry to say that I will not be at the meeting on Friday. I have to get my daughter in Milwaukee. The plan was to get her Thursday, but the pending bad weather for tomorrow has changed that.
I will look over the packet tonight.
Have a good meeting.
Rich
Richard A. Wolff
Administrator
Tinley Park Public Library
7851 Timber Drive
Tinley Park, IL. 60477
(708) 845-5718
r_wolff(a)tplibrary.org
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SWAN Board Members:
The Friday 2/21/14 meeting packet is now available for you:
http://support.swanlibraries.net/sites/default/files/meeting/2014-02-21/pac…
The packet is 30 pages long. An additional document on the SirsiDynix agreement, not included in the packet but to support Action Item #6, will be sent out later in the week when it is available. It is not anticipated that the meeting will last past lunch, so at this time no lunch is planned to be provided.
We look forward to seeing you Friday!
Brande Redfield
SWAN Office Manager
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5164
Fax: 630.734.5056
brande.redfield(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:brande.redfield@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
SWAN Board Members,
Melissa, Rob McGee and I met with three representatives from SirsiDynix on Monday and Tuesday. I would characterize the last two days as very productive and I am quite pleased that Brad Whittle, VP of Global Sales, was able to understand what SWAN was asking for. Rob McGee also made sure that the agreement was enhanced significantly for the purpose of clarity, knowing that the document must be understood easily by those who were not part of the discussion. Melissa spoke on behalf of the member libraries and I kept everything on track.
Highlights from our negotiations:
* The agreement will contain 19 "schedules" that were negotiated to better organize the agreement
* Staff software licenses has been confirmed as unlimited
* Details on the training package are still being worked out by me and my staff
* Questions about thin clients will be addressed within one of the schedules pertaining to existing SWAN hardware
* Adding new libraries: there was a lot of discussion on this area, but Melissa made clear that SWAN needs to be able to add libraries of many types and sizes
I expect to have a second draft of the contract to share with you at the SWAN Board meeting next week Friday. It will not be part of the board packet.
Jeanne asked Melissa and I after our Round 2 meeting that she not participate on the negotiation team. I am not sure this was shared with you at your last meeting.
Regards,
Aaron
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
SWAN Board Members:
I am happy to present to you a recommendation and report from the SWAN ILS Committee. The document attached is 71 pages in length, and includes details on Round 1 and Round 2 scoring, customer interviews, observations and conclusions.
Due to its length and detail, I recommend spending the next few days leading up to the meeting reviewing the report. The ILS Committee will be present at your meeting starting at 10am. The discussion will be held in open session, as recommended by the SWAN attorney Kathie Henn, of Klein Thorpe Jenkins.
If you have questions that you would like me to answer in advance of the meeting on Thursday, I would be happy to assist you.
Regards,
Aaron
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
SWAN Board Members:
The Thursday 2/6/14 meeting packet is now available for you:
http://support.swanlibraries.net/sites/default/files/meeting/2014-02-06/pac…
The packet is 38 pages long. An additional ILS committee report, not included in this packet, will be sent out separately via email as soon as it is available (hopefully by this evening). It is likely that this will be a long meeting, since we have a great deal to cover, so lunch will be provided.
We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!
Brande Redfield
SWAN Office Manager
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5164
Fax: 630.734.5056
brande.redfield(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:brande.redfield@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
SWAN Board:
On Friday the ILS Committee completed its scoring of the criteria for the ILS proposals. We focused solely on VTLS and SirsiDynix proposals. The Equinox proposal was eliminated at the prior meeting.
The completed scoring favored SirsiDynix as the preferred vendor so I am moving ahead with arranging a preliminary contract with SirsiDynix. We will go over more of the specifics of the contract and ILS recommendation at our SWAN Board meeting on Thursday February 6th. This news should be kept confidential among us until I have the go ahead to announce something formally.
Here is what you all need to know at this stage:
* I have contacted SirsiDynix, Equinox and VTLS to inform them of the outcome.
* I have requested a contract from SirsiDynix with Brad Whittle, Vice President of Global Sales, which I will review with the SWAN Negotiation Team, which is Melissa Gardner, Jeannie Dilger, and myself.
* The ILS Committee will be on-site at the SWAN Board meeting February 6th to review its recommendation. A portion of this recommendation will be held in closed-session as it involves reviewing contract terms, costs, etc.
* On February 10th & 11th there will be on-site negotiations of the contract with SirsiDynix and the Negotiation Team
* The SWAN Board will meet at as scheduled on Friday February 21 to review the contract
* March 6th is the SWAN Quarterly meeting, which is where the negotiated contract will be reviewed and approval for funds will take place
I would characterize the situation as "tentative" but only because there are a lot of steps to complete. However, I am excited that we have reached this milestone after 15 months. I believe what SirsiDynix has proposed is going to make our libraries very happy.
Thanks again to Rich Wolff and Melissa Gardner who sat through the entire meeting day of the ILS Committee on Friday. I think both of them saw how objective the group needed to be in order to arrive at the best choice for SWAN. I believe what they learned was that SWAN had two viable choices for its next ILS. So if things for some unforeseen reason break down with SirsiDynix, we will have VTLS as an immediate option.
Again, this news should be kept confidential among us until I have the go ahead to announce something formally.
Kind regards,
Aaron
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
SWAN Board Members,
The ILS Committee will meet on Friday at 9:30am in the *Main Meeting room in Burr Ridge. Nearly all of the information acquired since our Round 1 scoring has been warehoused online under the "RBFO" webpage, which is a Member's Only webpage.
http://support.swanlibraries.net/content/swan-rbfo
1. The RBFO responses, the Best And Final Offers (BAFOs), contained revised pricing and answers to questions from the committee and Task Force groups.
2. RMG conducted a cost analysis of the BAFOs, which is posted at the bottom of that webpage
3. Webinars were conducted with both vendors as part of the BAFO, and any presentation received is uploaded to this webpage
4. Last week, the ILS Committee issued a "Request for Clarifications" to SirsiDynix and VTLS in response to the two BAFOs, which are available in Word format.
5. Today, those responses were received from the two vendors, these contain revised cost quotations and narrative responses in PDF format
6. RMG will conduct a cost analysis over the next 24 hours and this will be uploaded to this webpage once I receive it, but you can see the spot where it will go on that webpage.
I have not reviewed the pricing at this moment, nor the answers received. They arrived at in time for the 4pm deadline.
Friday's agenda is posted online:
http://support.swanlibraries.net/sites/default/files/meeting/2014-01-17/age…
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
SWAN Board,
SWAN's Special Projects Coordinator Mary Lou Coffman has announced her retirement from SWAN after 20 years of service. Below is the email I sent to SWAN staff this morning.
Mary Lou and I are discussing some limited part-time employment to accomplish some projects in advance of an ILS migration. She has extensive background on the Millennium data arrangement, so I am interested in some "data dictionaries" and possibly some "data mapping" projects. Any offer of employment would be arranged on a limited basis, it would not be open ended. Nothing is set yet.
For me, her retirement is not a surprise. I expected some staff would take stock of the upcoming migration and make a decision regarding their career at SWAN.
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
From: Aaron Skog
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 11:56 AM
To: swanstaff
Subject: Retirement Announcement
SWAN Staff,
Mary Lou Coffman has informed me that she will be retiring from SWAN on January 31st. Mary Lou began working at SWAN in 1994 within SWAN's Database Maintenance department and was a key contributor to the ILS migration from GEAC to Innovative Interface's INNOPAC. Over the years Mary Lou has utilized her extensive knowledge of catalog record data and other areas of the Millennium ILS accessible to custom reports. Mary Lou has been the "go-to" person for our member libraries that needed a better understanding of how data can better serve them, and has provided numerous workshops and one-on-one training over the years. She has focused on many projects over her tenure at SWAN, managing a wide variety of areas on behalf of the consortium, including the deployment of Millennium Patron Images and Digital Signatures. I am sure I might be forgetting something... she has done A LOT!
Mary Lou will work with the Illinois State Board of Education, focusing on the area of serving children within the autism spectrum.
Over the next several weeks Mary Lou will continue to coordinate our Release 2011 upgrade, among other projects. She and I will work to transition areas of our services she oversees.
Please congratulate Mary Lou and wish her well.
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
SWAN Board,
I just want to make sure that we will have a quorum tomorrow morning. Melissa Gardner is not able to attend and Sheila Sosnicki is unable to come to the meeting, however Sheila will be there if a quorum cannot be met. Can I get a quick head count? Reply-all to this email (I'm sorry if this is late in the day).
Also, I have attached an agenda with assigned names for the meeting, so consider this the "board version" of the agenda. Mark Hatch from RAILS informed me that the delivery vendor CTS will have a representative at the meeting tomorrow.
Regards,
Aaron
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
