FALCONS Meeting Minutes – August 15, 2013
Date: August 15, 2013
Minutes: Motion to accept May minutes: Cortland made a motion to accept the minutes, seconded by Cato and approved.
Present: Auburn, Candor, Cato, Cortland, Dryden, Ithaca, Lansing, McGraw, Newark Valley, Newfield, Nichols, Ovid, Poplar Ridge, Seneca Falls, Trumansburg, Union Springs, Waverly, Weedsport, Malia, Michelle, Eric, Sandy, Amanda, and Linda from FLLS.
Absent: Apalachin, Aurora, Berkshire, Cincinnatus, Fair Haven, Groton, Homer, Interlaken, Lodi, Marathon, Moravia, Owego, Port Byron, Spencer, Waterloo,
Announcements:
- Tammy Kubinec is the interim director at Newfield.
- Sandy announced that she is the primary contact for cataloging. All cataloging concerns should be directed towards her at ext. 233 or SandyV@flls.org. Lois is working from home and can also be contacted at LMaki@flls.org
- Linda announced that there is a 1.5% decrease in Delivery/ ILL and asked if there are any problems libraries are seeing in circulation. Cortland mentioned construction could be an issue while Candor discussed patrons having a hard time seeing if a book is new or not and whether or not to order it from ILL. Linda stressed that if she cancels the patron’s hold it is the responsibility of the library to notify the patron since she does not want to hold up requests. If something is missing/lost in our system, highlight item and convert to an ILL. Please contact Linda with any problems.
- Opposing Viewpoints database has been added to NOVEL and will be very useful within the common core standards. Let your school librarians know about ASK24/7. If you want additional bookmarks contact Linda.
- October 18th at 9am there is a database training class at FLLS. Linda is happy to go out to libraries to do a regional training if there is a demand.
- Reminder: We can get copies of articles. Contact Linda for slips for article requests.
- 2014 FALCONS budget draft. Please look over and will be discussed at November FALCONS meeting. Slight increase in budget but will not impact Polaris charges
Old Business:
- Bulk computer purchases. TRU, CIN, WEED are staged and will be scheduling a time to install. We need license keys for Microsoft office, if you have not already sent them, please do.
- The bulk buy computers will have a different version of the security software, Faronics Deep Freeze Enterprise. Instead of rebooting individual computers, you will have a control center to do a bulk change to do all computers at once for Windows updates. Every computer in bulk purchase will have them. Last year’s computers will be upgraded. Going forward, all the new purchases will have them. Windows XP will still need to be done individually. If you bought computers last year on the bulk buy, they can be updated. Eric will update the old ones as he installs the new ones. Cortland questioned if it is an annual license. FLLS has not been charging for Faronics. FLLS licenses Symantec every year in January. Members pay $10 to renew for Symantec. You will start getting maintenance fees going forward for Faronics Deep Freeze. Windows 7 was not compatible with Steady State which is why we switched to Deep Freeze. Support for XP is going away next year. We will not be going back to do software updates for Windows XP, replacing Steady State with Deep Freeze, we’ll let the XP computers age out.
- If you are interested in converting Faronics licenses, the upgrade will allow for control center. If you purchased them earlier than 2012, call or email Eric and find out how much it will cost to convert to new Enterprise license. Eric recommended creating a schedule of rotating your computers every 5 years as they come with a 5 year warranty. If you do not know how old your computer is, look at the 7 character service tag and look it up at support.dell.com. Linda discussed having a technology plan to inventory and label what you already own and budget every year for replacing. Cortland recommended using the free software Spiceworks for inventory.
- Credit card processing: FLLS Ecommerce updates: Goal is to have it turned on Monday, August 19, 2013. Email FALCONS-L list with any questions. Rex might be having a video tutorial about how to do it. Look over the document and it will be discussed further at the November meeting.
New Business:
- FALCONS agreement copy. Some updates to the agreement and the language changed to reflect current terminology. Send all comments to FALCONS-L. Would like to vote on any changes and implement current contract in November to have a new FALCONS contract for 2014.
- Windows 8.1 Demonstration Q&A
- Windows 8 is designed for a touch screen so the interface is tricky. Currently Polaris is not touch compatible.
- Concerns about security of the app store being available to the public.
- If you are using Windows 8 as it was designed, the app version and the desktop version of the same program may interact differently. (Example: Running Internet Explorer app vs running on the desktop. Some websites might not run correctly through IE app because it is recognized as a mobile version)
- Office 360 – Office in the Cloud and all the devices connect to the cloud. Security issues with patrons not logging out of their individual accounts. Possible that Microsoft may push this in the future.
- Generally Windows 8.1 was well received as long as they can turn on the Classic Shell for the desktop. Training classes were requested so staff can become familiar to train their patrons. Eric discussed that when buying a Windows 8 computer it is possible to install Windows 7 on it for free.
Open Discussion:
- Union Springs asked for a recommended web browser for library purposes. Eric discussed his top four based on preference: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Opera. It was mentioned that PowerPAC does not seem to be compatible with Internet Explorer 11.
- eBook questions: Weedsport asked about any vendors that market just to book clubs for eBooks. We will look into this.
Meeting adjourned: Motion to adjourn by Dryden seconded by Candor meeting adjourned at 11: 32 am.
Next Meeting: Thursday November 21, 2013