Aspen Committee Meeting #

February 20, 2025 – 10am CT / 11am ET

Virtual Meeting

Minutes #

1. Britta calls the meeting to order at 3:00 pm (First time ever!)
2. Approval of Agenda
   1. Motion: Sarah Childs
   2. Second: Sarah Morey
   3. Approved
3. Status of Aspen
   1. Soft launched last year, March 17th, Quite a bit of usage since then. Britta showed stats dashboard. Almost 10k holds have been placed this year, almost 35k holds of all time. Dashboard available to all admin users. Search for “dashboard.” Those stats can be broken down per library.
4. New Business
   1. Welcome and introductions
      1. Sarah Morey – Morrisson-Reeves, launched early last year, never used classic catalog
      2. Vickie Fleischauer – South Whitley, Set up last spring
      3. Amanda Knol – Lowell, rolled out last spring
      4. Misty Morse – Clinton PL, just started using this week
      5. Rich Weiland – Adams, started last spring, button is only customization 
      6. Stephanie Rawlins – Pike County, worked with outside IT person to set up
      7. Sarah Childs – Hussey Mayfield, launched in November/December. Fair amount of customization 
      8. Kyle Evans – Owensville, launched Evergreen and Aspen in August
      9. Kayla Morris – Newburgh, launched last spring/summer
      10. Emma Richey – Eckhart, haven’t launched yet
      11. Anita Brown – Kendallville, from the beginning in the cohort, concerned about permissions
      12. Cassie Nash – Batesville, launched last summer
      13. Kate Noonan – Vernon Township, launched April/May last year
      14. Paula Newcom – ISL, here to see if she can help her libraries
      15. Ben Boyer – Jackson County
      16. Britta – Evergreen Indiana, working with since late May
      17. Courtney – Evergreen Indiana
   2. Subcommittee Setup
      1. Goals
         1. Stephanie suggests: goal is communication and marketing and being a sounding board for others in our region to share pain points so we can work on a strategy to use Aspen as  inspiration to join Evergreen consortium. Creation of procedures. Amanda says a goal  to have a core group of people working on best practices, how to handle issues that come up. And share what you’ve learned with other people.
         2. Sarah M suggests a technical support group that can help others with simple tasks.Stephanie suggests an FAQ page. Britta has started an Aspen Knowledgebase. Anita suggests using an Aspen website for that. Anita would prefer more formal than informal. Is the Aspen listserv still available? Sarah M asks how many libraries are actually using Aspen. Britta: at least 30 libraries that have had active logins.
         3. Courtney can push out info about the Aspen listserv. Sarah M.: Internal communication and marketing is a good goal. Sarah C: would like a location similar to Launchpad for Evergreen, to search bugs, talk about development, etc. The Aspen community is working on this. Stephanie: would like to work on custom permissions. Her site has been impacted by someone from another library changing her custom pages. Kyle: Is there a way to only see your library’s info? Britta: not sure. Permission discussion ensued. Emma: Aspen Committee should operate like the Cataloging Committee. Sarah M: focus on discovery of permissions and decide what needs to be locked down. Work on marketing for potential members. Anita: Aspen committee needs to be more direct than the cataloging committee. 
      2. Documentation
         1. Look at rules of governance and see what would work best for the committee. Should there be term limits for members? Sarah C, recommends no limits. Committee agrees. 
      3. Frequency of meeting
         1. Sarah C: should meet more frequently while we get everything set up. Emma: monthly is a good start. Amanda: agrees. Stephanie suggests meeting every month with a working group/full meeting trade off. Amanda: agrees. Britta suggests: even months = meeting, odd months = working group. Committee agrees. 
   3. Committee Elections
      1. Table until next governance meeting
5. Public Comment
   1. None
6. Announcements
   1. None
7. Next meeting
   1. Next working group: March 13 (second Thursday) 10 am CT / 11 am ET
   2. Next governance meeting: April 10
8. Adjournment
   1. Motion: Sarah Morey
   2. Second: Stephanie Rawlins