Present: Jim Bothmer, Mary Helms, Kathy Tooker, Joy Winkler, Shawn Ammon, Judi Bergjord, Jeanne Burke, Nancy Ralston, Tem Adair, Sara Martin, Ella Rathod, Rose Schinker, Angela Arner, Erin Bauer, Dee Cody, Ken Oyer, Judy Healy, Karen Mier, Nancy Woelfl, Gretchen Schaeffer.

Those present introduced themselves.

The minutes of March 23, 2001 were approved with some suggestions for changes and then published on ICON’s home page.

• Executive Secretary’s Report
  Mary is starting a petty cash fund, to be used in part for the mailing of videos (sent via media mail, averages $2.65 per video and handbook) Mary also distributed a budget list, including how many and to whom we have sold the Consumer Health video. Twenty six videos and twenty two guides have been sold and to such places as the New York Public Library, Canada, and Alaska! Mary suspects we'll be getting more requests as a result of the order forms given out at MLA.

• Communications Coordinator Report
  Erin Bauer explained that the "Library Links" section of the ICON Web page has been redesigned and now includes Ronnie Mevorach's union list pdf file, instructions and template. Erin also said that the newest issue of ICONnection is up and as the MLA Scholarship recipient, her article about the conference is included in the newsletter.

• Committee Reports
  
  • Bylaws Committee had nothing to report.

  • Membership Committee:
    Mary brought up the possibility of having a membership drive and looking at using brochures, web site, etc. She mentioned that Beth Drickey, from the Metro Omaha Medical Society (MOMS) is a new member. Nancy Woelfl added that MOMS was going to write a letter of support for healthHQ.

  • Resource Committee:
    Karen Mier reported that the new "Library Links" page on ICONnection is up and that more member libraries are linked. Erin added that she has put some new member libraries such as Iowa Western and Madonna onto the links since they have web sites. Karen mentioned that Ronnie's Union List information is up. She will talk to Ronnie about possibly putting an article in MLA News about it. The Resource Committee member list has lost one member and may lose another due to the RML change. Beth Carlin resigned her position on the committee. Teri Hartman is still a member but may not be able to continue. Jeanne Burke offered to be on the committee. Karen told the group to let her know if anyone else would like to join. Karen also reported that ILL stats have been delayed, the 4th quarter stats should be available in July.

  • Consumer Health Grant Steering Committee Report
    Jim reported that the committee has met a couple of times, discussing work on the web site, indexing using the Plaintree thesaurus (Ronnie), and data entry (Diane Roberts). They have exhibited at the Eastern Library System, getting good public librarian feedback, and Ken and Angie exhibited in Kearney. Ronnie helped with the exhibit at Mini Medical Schools and Roxanne and Ronnie exhibited at the Patient Ed meeting at NHS. Joy Winkler has worked with the intranet site and exhibited (all shifts!!). Erin spoke of the MLA poster session a bit, including the brochures, bandaids, computer monitor cleaners and other items they had available. She said it was a success. Ken mentioned that they are doing quality control on the sites that they put on healthHQ based on criteria the committee developed and dividing up the sites among the group to evalulate and later decide whether to keep or not.

    Jim also spoke of the Road Trip for the computer grant to Scribner, NE. The group included Jim, Rose, Joy, Ken, Angela and Kathy. He said that they were very happy to have them there.

    The "Visions" committee, Kathy, Marie, Roxanne, and Jim are looking at what to do next after the grant runs out at the end of July. They were going to meet with the the Systems directors and Nebraska Library Commission about partnering or see if there would be other grant opportunities for future funding. The Visions committee was going to also meet with a woman named Barb Fox in Lincoln who has been doing her own research on Lincoln Support groups and they thought that this might be useful for healthHQ and were looking into negotiations with Fox on buying her list of data.

    Jim also reported that ICON had received a plaque from the Easter Library System. This award is going to be scanned and put on the ICON website Kathy Tooker will prepare copies for each ICON library to display.

• October 11th Web Design CE Update
  Jeanne Burke reported that the CE would be at the ESU in West Omaha on October 11th from 9am to 4pm. The cost is $10 for ICON members and $50 for non-ICON members. There will be a two speaker sessions, the first being about web design ideas and the second being on disability issues on the web...flexibility, wider audience, etc. The CE committee is going to check into getting CEU credit for the class and about panelists getting free admission. There will be newsletter and flier information about the CE.

• Scholarships for 2001
  There was discussion on if we should give scholarship for MCMLA 2001 because of unexpected expenses for the HealthHQ grant. Executive board recommended that we not have it. However, after much discussion, it was decided that we should finish off the year by doing it and then look at options for using it for other purposes later. Mary Helms moved for this decision, Nancy Woelfl agreed and Ken Oyer seconded.

• In 2002, award a one time fund of $1000 for library materials vs Scholarships?
  The group discussed possibilities for this...getting seed grants to beef up Collection Development for a library. Sara Martin mentioned that giving a money sum to a small library would have more of an impact (for its collection) than an individual using the scholarship. Other sources of funding for building library collections were also mentioned such as ESL grants and NLM grants, although Nancy Woelfl stated that NLM seemed to be getting away from collection grants and more towards electronic access and major system grants. Rose asked the Resource Committee to look for funding sources to improve library consumer health collections.

• ABC Breakfasts
  Rose explained that an email went out asking if people wanted to continue having ABC Breakfasts, which cost $400 a year for the four sessions (buying a ten people table). A discussion started about sending five people to each session instead of ten at a first come first serve. This way we can see if there is still the interest in it before deciding against buying any tickets. Sara Martin moved that ICON send the five people and the motion carried.

• Up fees for membership?
  There was discussion on if we should up membership for institutions from $50 to something higher, perhaps $75. The $50 really only covers the cost of the union list so that the benefits of membership are far outweighing what members are paying. Currently there are around 21 institutional members and 40 individual members. There is a need to evaluate if we do up the price, what will we use it for. Mary suggested that we have an email discussion about this and what the comfort level will be before we get another influx of cash. Sara Martin brought up that if we did this, it might be OK to charge insitutions more but would hesitate on individuals. ICON needs to look at how much we are going down, mini revenues with the video, etc and what has the investment been annually for the group. It was decided to discuss the budget in more detail at the December meeting, including an overview of the budget from the last three years and a projected 2002 budget.

• Other Business:
  The University of Missouri and Emporia are both going to have MLS programs for NE. ICON could look at offering some scholarships to people attending these programs based on specific criteria we would set up, such as putting it toward a medical librarianship class.

• Next Meetings:
  Next meeting is on September 13 at 2:00 p.m. at UNMC. Members will be able to tour the newly remodeled library. December Christmas party meeting will be at 2:00 p.m. at Bellevue University.

• Adjournment
  

• Mini-MLA Mary shared all the "goodies" she picked up from MLA (including drawings for a stuffed dolphin, hat, T-shirt and chocolate!) with the group.