2025-04 Aspen Committee Minutes

Aspen Committee Meeting

April 10, 2025 – 10am CT, 11am ET

Virtual Meeting

Minutes #

 

Members Present

Anita Brown (Kendallville)

Sarah Childs (Hussey-Mayfield)

Vickie Fleischauer (South Whitley)

Amanda Knol (Lowell)

Brittany Leath (Kendallville)

Sarah Morey (Morrisson-Reeves)

Kayla Morris (Newburgh Chandler)

Misty Morse (Clinton)

Cassie Nash (Batesville)

Sandra Osborn (Mooresville)

Stephanie Rawlins (Pike County)

Emma Richey (Eckhart)

Michele Risinger (Hartford City)

Rich Weiland (Adams County)

 

Non-Voting Members Present

Courtney Brown (Evergreen Indiana)

Britta Dorsey (Evergreen Indiana)

Paula Newcom (Indiana State Library)

 

Guests Present

None

 

1. Britta calls the meeting to order at 11:00 am
   1. Requests a volunteer secretary for today’s minutes; Amanda volunteered
2. Roll call
3. Approval of Agenda
   1. Motion: Sarah Morey
   2. Second: Amanda Knol
   3. Approved
4. Approval of minutes from February 20, 2025
   1. Motion: Vickie Fleischauer
   2. Second: Anita Brown
   3. Approved
5. Director’s Report
   1. Courtney stated that Evergreen is very busy with migrations right now
      1. There are currently eight approved applications, plus Wells County is awaiting approval.
      2. Current migrations will carry us into 2027, so there is a line ahead of any other libraries interested in joining.
      3. Details discussed for the expected launch dates
         1. Ohio County: June 10
         2. Brook: September 3
         3. Jasonville: Still re-barcoding
         4. Edinburgh: Recataloging; cataloging party coming up; launch goal is early 2026
         5. Delphi: Loose goal – March 2026
         6. Crawfordsville: Loose goal – October 2026
         7. Jasper and Remington: Meeting with Evergreen at the end of the month to loosely determine launch dates; Jasper will likely be a full data migration, whereas Remington will catalog in
         8. Wells County: To be determined upon approval
      4.  Migration training is 27 hours for each library, which Britta handles.
   2. Annual Council Meeting was yesterday
      1. Committee nominations were approved, and Courtney has emailed the ballots out
      2. Bylaws updated for relevance
   3. The international Evergreen Conference is coming in May; scholarship applications will be reviewed by the Evergreen Indiana Committee on Tuesday
   4. The Evergreen Indiana Conference is August 15; let Courtney know if there is anything you can help out with
   5. The Patron Services Committee met this past Tuesday and made a few procedure adjustments
      1. Approved six-week checkout times for Home Delivery items (the same checkout length as for Book Club titles)
      2. Approved a request for a new item status of “Offsite” for outreach events
6. Support Admin Report
   1. Britta has had good attendance at her recent webinars and is working to get the recordings onto YouTube.
   2. Cataloging and Circulation roundtables are next week.
   3. Britta has a Reports roundtable scheduled for May 1 to try to go over more in-depth information on templates.
   4. Britta is working on updates to some Evergreen documentation.
   5. Details reviewed about Edinburgh’s upcoming cataloging party and about upcoming migration trainings
7. Status of Aspen
   1. The Aspen Help Center by By Water Solutions lists system releases, updates, and bugs. Britta verified that we are on the latest Aspen version (v. 24.08).
   2. Reviewed 2024 Aspen stats (March 17–December 31).
   3. Britta has been looking into the permissions and roles available in Aspen and is working on learning how to limit and customize them to library needs

Permissions

1. Aspen has a board called Atlassian for looking at bugs, projects, and developments (similar to Evergreen’s Launchpad); Britta is looking into access permissions
2. Aspen offers the ability to create Community Engagement Campaigns that look similar to Goodread Goals.
3. Stephanie asked about the status of an Aspen app; Britta responded that By Water has their Lida app, and Equinox hopes to eventually make their own

1. Unfinished Business
   1. Committee Elections
      1. Elections were held for the Chair, Co-Chair, and Secretary for the Aspen Committee; terms will be for 1 year (though the current cycle will run from now until the June meeting in 2026)
      2. Final Nominations
         1. Chair: Cassie Nash
         2. Co-Chair: Sarah Childs
         3. Secretary: Amanda Knol
      3. Motion: Anita Brown
      4. Second: Kayla Morris
      5. Approved
   2. Working Group Update
      1. Notes from March Working Group shared

WG Notes

1. Rules of Governance (drafted at March working group) submitted for approval

Rules of Governance Draft

1. Motion: Kayla Morris
2. Second: Anita Brown
3. Approved

1. New Business
   1. Holdability vs Non-Holdability in Aspen (non-voting)
      1. Ten libraries would like their non-holdable items viewable in Aspen; Britta will make the change over Good Friday/Easter weekend to limit the effect that the reindex will have
2. Public Comment
   1. Paula mentioned that a director from a small library asked if the Aspen committee would eventually consider doing regional workshops to help people who might want to learn more (especially those who might want to move their websites to Aspen). Britta will follow up with the requestor on clarification of what kind of help they were hoping for (such as wanting help starting up versus wanting someone to help as an admin)
3. Announcements
   1. The Executive Committee meets next Tuesday, April 15, in-person at the Pike County Public Library and via Zoom
4. Next meeting
   1. Next working group: May 8, 10 am CT / 11 am ET
   2. Next governance meeting: June 12, 10 am CT / 11 am ET
5. Adjournment
   1. Motion: Vickie Fleischauer
   2. Second: Misty Morse
   3. Approved