SWAN Board Members:
The Friday 11/15 meeting packet is now available for you - http://support.swanlibraries.net/sites/default/files/meeting/2013-11-15/pac…
The packet is 49 pages long. Please note that the Financials portion of the packet will be sent in a separate document. Merilynn Nagle is still out sick, so we are awaiting her return for that final portion but wanted to get the rest posted and out to you as soon as it was available. This week's meeting should not run past noon so we do not anticipate that lunch will be needed.
As always, we look forward to seeing you on 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
Hello all,
Merilynn, our staff accountant, is out of the office today. Because of this we will need to finish up our board agenda and packet for this Friday tomorrow. Aaron and I will be at the Committee of the Whole meeting in the morning/afternoon, so we anticipate finishing the packet and posting it tomorrow evening.
Thank you all,
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 Staff, RAILS Leadership Team, SWAN Board Members:
Kate alerted me to a news article from Saturday that Maywood Public Library has secured its bank loan and will reopen.
http://thevillagefreepress.org/2013/11/09/rep-welch-local-officials-maywood…
Both Seaway and the Village of Maywood are demanding severe austerity measures from the library, which will include pay-cuts, a reduction in staff and greater financial oversight.
Library Director Stan Huntington announced the library's new operating hours: Mon. - Wed. (12pm - 7pm), Tue. - Thu. (12pm - 5:30pm), Saturdays (9am - 5:30pm). The library won't be opening Monday, due to Veteran's Day.
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:
We are trying to confirm this but a reporter from local Forest Park Review contacted the Forest Park Public Library about the Maywood board meeting Thursday night to approve closing. I phoned the Maywood Public Library District and left a voicemail with library director Stan Huntington (the library is closed on Fridays)
I do not see an agenda posted
http://www.maywood.org/library/board_minutes1.html
The reporter who contacted Forest Park Public Library is Jean Lotus, Editor of Forest Park Review (708-613-3325).
I have notified the RAILS leadership team. I have been keeping Dee Brennan informed of the situation at Maywood. What is really odd is that Maywood trustee Kim Johnson was selected as ILA Trustee of the year and presented the award last week, with Jesse white and Anne Craig in attendance.
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,
The ILS Committee has expressed some concerns to me pressures they are facing from the membership regarding Polaris and Innovative not being included in the demos. We discussed this at our last board meeting and the consensus was that we would continue on with the process and the committee's recommendation. We cannot at this time share all of the reasons why these two vendors were scored lower than the others. This can be shared at the completion of the RFP process. Jeannie is working on an update to the membership that shares the scoring criteria, process to ease some of the concerns.
I myself am more concerned that the SWAN board has been part of this pressure on the committee either indirectly when talking to other library directors and tasks force members or directly when talking with members of the committee or Aaron. As a board we decided on this process, the committee and when discussed last week express that we wished to continue on this road. We need to be unified in our support of the committee, their recommendations and the process that we have selected. Based on last week's meeting I thought we were in agreement to continue down the road that we are on. That is the decision that we made at last week's meeting and we should continue to support the committee, the task force and the process that we selected.
Please call me to discuss any comments or concerns you may have. I want to make sure that we are acting in the best interest of our membership and that we as board members feel we can support the decisions that we make. I will be out of the office Thursday and Friday, please feel free to contact me on my cell phone.
-Melissa
Melissa Gardner
Executive Director
Broadview Public Library District
2226 S. 16th Ave. * Broadview, IL 60155
(708)345-1325 x20 * Fax: (708) 345-0302
Cell: (773) 807-0619
www.broadviewlibrary.org<http://www.broadviewlibrary.org/>
SWAN Board,
I worked with RAILS today to see what the costs would be for all of the SWAN libraries to join the eRead Illinois project with Baker & Taylor Axis 360. The fee formula for eRead is somewhat complex as it involves a base fee + population served fee + library collection budget fee to arrive at the total. Luckily RAILS has most of this data from IPLAR so I have compiled a beginning estimate for all 77 SWAN libraries to join. Some library data is missing, so it's not 100% complete but I wanted to show you how this was shaping up. For some reason RAILS left out Prairie Trails PLD altogether which I am in the process of correcting. Right now the total is $87,500 for eRead for SWAN. This number will go up as I complete the data gaps.
For eRead formula information, look here: http://www.railslibraries.info/sites/default/files/membership_fee_structure…
Rather than add each library's individual eRead fee to the SWAN membership fee, I treated eRead like our OCLC invoice: it is a combined cost for all of the libraries and simply goes into the operating budget for SWAN. Our fee formula dices up all of the combined expenses (OCLC, staff, Innovative maintenance, and now eRead) and arrives at a new total. The biggest advantage of doing it this way is if RAILS come forward with some incentive to the Illinois consortia that go 100% into the eRead subscription, we could apply the discount on the total base price. Dee has no idea about what that might look like, or if it's even possible, and she made sure that we all understood that idea might not work out depending (we swore secrecy).
Pages 1 -2 compare the SWAN fees: last year's FY14, this year FY15, but includes an FY15 with eRead costs integrated. It also shows for you the eRead individual library price. This are the pages I would like some feedback from you on.
Pages 12 - 13 shows the eRead formula breakdown.
Pages 14 -15 sort the SWAN Fees with eRead included sorted low to high.
Does moving forward with eRead seem worth doing? Would it be worth presenting to the COW meeting? Should I present this in a different format? I would include an narrative explanation with the budget.
Please email me individually or give me a phone call. Per OMA, we should not reply-all as a group.
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,
Let me bring Jim Deiters up to date on the Friday meeting. Rodger needed to leave around 11:30am so allow me to cover some of the meeting.
As you can all see by now, the announcement of Tony Siciliano retiring has been made. Tony is avoiding the word "retirement" so that he can escape without a large hoopla party. He really, really does not like a big celebration so it has made it a little awkward in avoiding that word. I hope people don't think he is being forced out or has suddenly quit. He and I began discussing this months ago. He is being extremely helpful offering to work with his replacement for a period of cross training.
My review will take place next month at the November SWAN Board meeting. Melissa and Rich will compile all of your ratings and comments into a single document after the SWAN Committee of the Whole meeting.
We reviewed the FY15 budget and there was not a lot of changes suggested other than catching a couple errors in my narrative portion of the budget. What was suggested after Dee Brennan visited was to have SWAN consider getting into the RAILS eRead Illinois grant project. The SWAN Board really liked the idea of getting all 77 SWAN libraries in the program as it fit within our strategic goal for e-resources. I have compiled some costs for the eRead group purchase and will send those in a separate email.
Agenda items for the COW meeting include:
1. FY15 Budget & Fees
2. RAILS Update (eBook grant and group purchase, delivery outsourcing)
3. ILS Search update
4. RAILS Consortia Committee update
That covers the SWAN Board meeting. Look for my eRead email next.
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 Friday 10/18 meeting packet is now available for you - http://support.swanlibraries.net/sites/default/files/meeting/2013-10-18/pac…
The packet is 61 pages long. We anticipate that the meeting will end before noon; therefore, no lunch will be provided.
We look forward to seeing you on 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,
Attached you will find Aaron's self-evaluation and a blank Evaluation Form for you to fill out. We were originally going to do Aaron's evaluation at the October meeting on Friday but have moved it to November's meeting. I felt that with the ILS demos and ILA being this month that it was too difficult for the board to spend the time that Aaron deserves on completing the evaluation. Please fill out the evaluation form and have it back to me or Rich by the 11th of November. I am hoping that he and I can meet after our committee of the whole meeting on November 12th to compile the responses for the meeting on November 15th. Thank you all for your time and if you have any questions or concerns we can discuss Friday at our meeting.
-Melissa
Melissa Gardner
Executive Director
Broadview Public Library District
2226 S. 16th Ave. * Broadview, IL 60155
(708)345-1325 x20 * Fax: (708) 345-0302
Cell: (773) 807-0619
www.broadviewlibrary.org<http://www.broadviewlibrary.org/>
SWAN Board Members:
I have some checks to sign today or Thursday/Friday if you are visiting. Jim has signed them, so I only need one more of you. Please look for Brande or I if you are visiting the Burr Ridge office.
Thanks,
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
