6 November 2025 Resource Sharing Alliance (RSA) Board Meeting

 

The meeting was held at the Farmington Public Library. Director Duttlinger is the treasurer of the Board. The meeting was a hybrid with 2 members online and a quorum present in the meeting room to meet with Open Meeting Act requirements.

RSA is the LLSAP that provides the system support for the circulation software. Also provides cataloging assistance and database support.

The First item was the Audit Presentation. This was important as RSA is currently Reaching Across Illinois Library System employees. January 1, 2026, they will be RSA employees. Which will be a government entity. With that comes new accounting procedures. The Auditors explained the differences in the practices. Moving from Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).  RAILS Financial team Discussed the difference in the two methods. FASB provides financial information to investors where GASB looks at accountability and transparency of the organization.

Then the discussion for next years audit was discussed. As the new group will have to do an RFP as cost of the audit will require a bid process. The current provider does the audit for $24,000. There are nine auditors that have been selected so far for the bid process. The Board must approve the auditor.

The department reports were in the packet. Trainings , Library visits, and other items were mentioned. RSA has a lot of school libraries and helping the small school libraries was highlighted in the report. 

The new BLUEcloud Circulation system was discussed. Three users are currently testing the SirsiDynix product. It will be moved into more test libraries soon. The system allows you to manage patron data from any browser type. This is a great tool for bookmobile and other off site events.

The closing of the Baker and Taylor facility in Momence was discussed. As they handled the Boundless collection of eBook titles. It is converting over to the Palace Project. The limitations were discussed as it currently not available through a Kindle. Palace Project is a stand alone interface and will not have many of the ebook apps that were available through Boundless. The Libby app can handle Kindle downloads for patrons.

The annual training day called RSA Day was discussed. The theme is Building a Successful Library. A keynote speaker has been booked. Sessions are developing and looking for more ideas for topics.

Three positions are open at RSA. Interviews are taking place. Had 150 applicants for the Data Analyst position. 30 applying for the Business Marketing Coordinator and 25 for the Bibliographic Services Specialist.  Good amount of resumes for each position. All successful candidates will have a start date of January 1, 2026.

New computers and software were discussed as RAILS owns all the licenses and computers in use today. Waiting for the tax free paperwork to be finalized to make the purchases.

The final portion of the meeting was approving and ending policies.

First policy was AI-generated Items Policy. This policy would not allow AI generated resources to be cataloged if they contained copyright materials. The only change to the policy was adding a definition of AI generated items.

Database Records Deletion Policy was next. This was to clean up the system for deleting records for many reasons. Reasons may be no activity for 5 years, old holds that were never filled, and checked out missing items that are not recoverable.

The rescinding of the AV item type policy was eliminating Audio Visual cataloging terms. This had been adopted 5 years ago and finally all the AV items are out of the system.

All items were passed.

Meeting adjourned, It was great meeting a lot of librarians on the RSA board. It was a good networking opportunity.

PLA Forces: Force 1 The nature and pace of change. The meeting showed how organizations must be nimble in order to adjust to changes in governance. This change allows them to be more conscious of outside opportunities and grants. Allows for more transparency to its members.

Work total 3 hours                  Semester total 84