Ann B. Hutton, Executive Director

At the joint meeting of the Technology Policy Committee and the ILS Operations in February 2008, members revised the responsibilities of the ILS Operations Committee.  As part of a discussion, members reviewed the breakdown of voting representation in comparison to financial support of the SELCO ILS.

The makeup of the ILS Operations Committee with five members and three alternates elected to represent the online public libraries, two elected school representatives and one alternate, matches (within percentage points) the use of the system in terms of circulation and holdings shared with the cooperative.  The representative make-up of the ILS Operations Committee also mirrors the levels of financial support by type of library.

As part of the public discussions on a possible merger of SELCO and SELS, the question has been raised if library representation on the ILS Operations Committee is the right mix.  Based strictly on a statistic analysis, the current makeup fits a variety of factors, which certainly argues that in the interest of striving for a manageable size group, the number of individual should stay the same.   Others might put forth an argument for a larger group, or a different mix and I am amenable to that discussion.

At the last ILS Operations – Technology Policy Committee, I proposed increasing the membership of the ILS Ops Committee and correcting a number of items that have slipped over time.   Details of what I proposed are included below.  No action was taken while the elected public library representatives poll the library directors.

Recommendation

1.  Retain the current two elected representatives of large public libraries and elected alternate

2.  Call for nominations for the position vacated by Jeanne Johnson formerly representing medium public libraries and currently filled by LaVonne Beach, the elected alternate.  (The call for nominations in August 2007 did not receive any responses.)

3.  Shift the seat held by Sharon Grossardt from representing small public libraries to a medium slot since the St. Charles population places this library in the “medium” category.  This would give medium public libraries a second seat at the table.

4.  Call for nominations for a small public library representative in the slot previously held by Sharon Grossardt.

5.  Call for nominations for the second small library representative since Susan Hart completed her second term, 2005-2007, and there should already have been a call for nominations.  Susan would be eligible for a third term and is currently the elected Vice-Chair of the Committee. 

6.  Likewise, a call for nominations for the small library alternate is needed.  Stephanie Silvers completed her first term, 2005-2007.  Stephanie is also eligible to be nominated.

More information is available on the website.

• For a complete roster of the ILS Operations Committee members and ex-officio attendees
  
• For the committee charge and list of responsibilities as edited by the Committee in February 2008 and approved by the Board