FALCONS Meeting Minutes – November 19, 2020

The meeting was held on Zoom. Rex called it to order at 9:30 AM.

FLLS Staff Present: Nora Burrows, Eric Franks, Deb Geier, Sarah Glogowski, Rex Helwig, Jenny Shonk

Member Libraries Present: Cathy Sorber (APAL), Jill Hand (AUB), Sandra Groth (AURO), Fran Miller (BERK), Marcia Enright (CAN), Gayle James (CATO), Aimee Dorward (CORT), Jen Graney (CORT), Theresa Mekeel (CORT), Diane Pamel (DRY), Allen Tompkins (FAIR), Sarah Knobel (GRO), Priscilla Berggren-Thomas (HOM), Suzie Gutenberger (LAN), Mary Frank (MARA), Heather Cobb (MCGR)Erin Chapman (NEVA), Sue Chaffee (NEW), Heather Dungey (OVID), Lisa Semenza (POP), Ben Love (PORT), Jenny Burnett (SENF), Elizabeth Helmetsie (SPE), Jen Schlossberg (TCPL), Ksana Broadwell (TRU), Carla Piperno-Jones (UNS), Brandi Rozelle (WAT), Chris Brewster (WAV), Cheryl Austin (WEED)

Absent: CIN, INT, LODI, MOR, NIC, OWE,

INTRODUCTIONS
Rex introduced the new director for PORT, Ben Love.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Sarah Glogowski: Sarah updated information presented at the Directors’ Meeting on 11/18/20. The FLLS Board of Trustees approved the following at their meeting that evening:

• If a library is located in a yellow or orange zone, deliveries will continue.
• If a library is located in a red zone, deliveries will be halted until the status improves.
• If an executive or federal order closes libraries, then the entire system will close.
• CARES Act funding will follow the LLSA formula for dispersal. This funding can be used for covering all COVID related expenses such as PPE, cleaning supplies, and materials needed for sneeze guards (but will not cover the installation costs).
• TCPL will receive up to $7,500
• AUB and CORT will receive up to $4,000
• All other libraries will receive $525
• Any unspent funding from one library may be redistributed to others in need.

No other FLLS staff had announcements to make

Approval of Minutes: Sarah Knobel (GRO) made a motion to accept the August 2020 minutes. Allen Tompkins (FAIR) seconded this motion. The minutes were approved unanimously.

OLD BUSINESS

• One Card-Many Libraries:
  • Rex is requesting corrections be made to birthdates if a block comes up. Accurate birthdates are needed for alerts of duplicate patrons and for auto-progression of patron codes (eg child to adult code).
  • Please reconcile any duplicate patron blocks. If a child has 2 cards (eg one with each parent) consider entering a note regarding this or associate the 2 accounts.
• FALCONS 2020-2021 Budget – Libraries will see a decrease of 3.51% in Polaris fees. Costs have been cut in other areas to give assistance to the member libraries.
• 2020 Bulk Computer Buy:
  • All except one of the libraries has received their computers.
  • Chrome devices have been difficult to get due to the rush on them by students and schools. Eric has been able to get a good price for Chrome Boxes which are suitable to use for a PAC. Chromebooks are still being sought at a reasonable price and with a lifespan of 3-5 years.
  • Cathy Sorber (APAL) reported that she felt the process went very smoothly this year despite COVID and gave kudos to Eric for his support in installing them remotely. Rex commented that in most cases remote support is working well and is paying off.

NEW BUSINESS

• Spam Filters – Eric has turned on Spam filters for all libraries who have e-mail hosted by FLLS. An e-mail will be tagged if it reaches the default criteria, often determined if a site is known to be spam or if many links are included in the e-mail. He has not set it to automatically place them in a spam/junk folder so that “real” e-mails won’t get lost.  Please e-mail Eric to let him know what e-mails are getting tagged that should not be so that he can make adjustments.
• Polaris 6.7
• During the time when libraries were shut down Rex upgraded Polaris to 6.5 and has skipped the upgrade to 6.6. The documentation for the new features is available on the protected section of the FLLS website.
• Rex is uncertain if he will do the upgrade to 6.7. The “what’s new” document is not yet available.
• Rex is looking forward to 7.0 at some point in 2021. This should include the ability to create bib records from a template (Quick-Bibs) and print spine labels from Leap which would then allow it to do all needed functions and be able to replace the current Polaris desktop client.
• Innovative is developing a next-generation Power Pac called “Vega”. It is not yet available to consortia.

OPEN DISCUSSION

• REALM Study: Sarah Glogowski reported that the REALM Project Test 6 results were released today. Results show that after two days, SARS-CoV-2 virus was not detectable on the brass and marble. After six days, virus was not detected on the glass, laminate, and powder-coated steel (frequently used in book carts). Everyone is encouraged to continue to clean and disinfect regularly.
• Virtual Browsing – In response to a recent e-mail Rex reported that carousels of items can be inserted into a library website using either iFrame or html codes.
  • A bib record set will need to be made of items the library owns and wants to add to the carousel. Once created it can be updated and does not need to be recreated each time.
  • If the book jackets do not show up in the carousel fill out a ticket on the “help desk”. Chili Fresh often needs to have domains (for the individual websites) added to their list.
  • The process may not work well for Facebook. Eric reported that if a link is posted there it will usually use a default featured image so may not show the individual book jackets.

Next meeting: February 18, 2021 (9:30 AM) – At this time a new Vice-Chair and Secretary need to be elected. Rex is encouraging members from outside Cayuga County to consider this as AUB and POP have recently both filled each position.

The meeting adjourned at 10:15 AM

Respectfully submitted by Lisa Semenza (POP)