Meeting Summary for Sage User Council

June 04, 2025

Recording Link: https://vimeo.com/1120480868

 Attendees: Beth Ross (Sage), Dea Nowell (UCSLD, Chair), Jon Georg (Sage), Perry Stokes (Baker, Vice-chair), Rachael Fox (Hood River), Shawnee Stacy (KFCC), Kristin Williams (BMCC), Kirsten Wells (The Dalles), Susan Lewis (CGCC), Mark Rose (Hermiston), Carrie Bushman (Cook Memorial), Marsha Richmond (Lake)

Request for agenda items: No new business.

Approval of November minutes – The minutes for March 18th and April 7th were ready for approval, however there was not a quorum of council representatives present. Therefore no motion for a vote was taken.

Committee Reports

Cataloging Workgroup- The committee met on June 3rd. The group discussion included a brief discussion about getting a bot blocker configured on our system to address the DDoS attacks we’ve been dealing with, as well as discussing the issues with the authority update and diacritics. Heather showed staff the new updates to the Evergreen Help functionality within the enhanced MARC editor to display details for many of the MARC fields.

There was a reminder that we need to separate out different editions of works into different records, when they do not meet the criteria outlined in the Sage Standards for Matching to Database Records Policy.

Additionally, we reminded staff to check authorities completely when cataloging. We had an example where an invalid Subject Heading was used within a record, which happened to match an unrelated Name Authority record, and was then accidentally indexed as such.

There was a discussion about AI content, as they are starting to appear in libraries. This includes content that is either AI derived, or contains materials that are AI derived, and we’re noticing that the AI content is not always overtly identified as such. Therefore we recommended that it be noted within the record when feasible.

Poll for Feasibility and Preference of Courier Survival Options

Perry presented the results of his poll asking for how members felt about the options that had been discussed at the Emergency meeting in April. The consensus was to use available funds to operate the courier for half the year and then launch a fundraising effort should the LSTA funds not come through.

Systems Update

Jon discussed the ongoing bot DDoS attacks that have been causing issues with the system. He provided a brief recap on what has been happening. Essentially we’re receiving a large amount of traffic from bots that are attempting to crawl our database. When that traffic gets too high it causes the app servers to crash taking down the web interface to the database. Thankfully it is not adversely affecting the database itself.

We already had EOU geoblock access, thereby limiting access to only that originating within the US and Canada, which eliminated a lot of the original bot farms. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bot farms housed within the US as well, some of which are owned by international entities. Our assumption is that the bots are being used to train AI. Sage is not the only library being attacked, other libraries are having to deal with this as well, including other Evergreen libraries. Emerald Data has agreed to assist with installing something called a bad bot blocker which will help eliminate that traffic. It’s essentially a list of known bot IP addresses, and it denies access to them automatically. The hope is that we’ll be able to get that installed this week. Jon also mentioned how he’s adjusted his workflow to better track the health of the servers to mitigate these attacks as much as possible.

Authority Control from Backstage

The entire database [minus ebooks, since they’re temporary records] was exported and sent to Backstage for Authority Control processing. Those records were processed and sent back, so they could be overlaid. That process has been completed with the exception of subject authorities. We ran into a snag where documentation with Evergreen was lacking, as there are multiple character sets available for export, but it does not give the option to select which character set you’re using for import. This was the root cause of the issue where records with diacritics instead ended up with other characters in place of the diacritics. Now that the issue has been identified, it hopefully will not occur again, and Backstage will also be on the lookout to help assure that it doesn’t happen again.

Going forward, monthly updates of new records will be sent off. Part of the Authority Control process includes looking at the punctuation within the records, so some of those errors will be caught as well automatically. During this process, we also discovered that for exceptionally large batches of authority record imports, that it is possible to overwhelm the database server and run out of room. Jon was able to fix that issue, and make sure it did not repeat during the rest of the authority record reload.

Perry asked if there is a way to catch records with diacritic issues and batch update those records affected by the diacritics issue. Beth assured him that we can and that we have a matching chart for the incorrect characters identified so far, so that a search and replace can be done on them with the correct characters, and additional characters are being added to that list as they’re identified.

MessageBee

Configuring MessageBee to our system is in process. We will begin with text messaging, primarily because many of the cell providers are no longer providing email to text conversions for notifications. The hope is to expand it to include email notifications from Evergreen in the future.

We’re expecting to notify staff of this transition within the next couple weeks.

New Business

As part of the system update discussion, Jon pointed out that ProSupport for the Database servers through Dell ends March 2026. Therefore we will need to discuss how we will handle the replacement of those servers at some point within the next year. Marsha asked if it would be possible to use cloud based servers rather than having physical hardware for those servers. That is a possibility, as is potentially having EOU completely host Sage, since currently the only physical servers owned by Sage are the database servers and the test server. The remaining servers are all virtual at this point.

Review of the state of the Sage Library System

Perry presented on the financial status of Sage. We’re in good standing with reserves, partially due to Beth’s delayed retirement. We’re devoting some of our reserves to the restructuring of the fee schedule so that it is more fair and accurate, however a wrench has been thrown into those plans with the possible loss of the courier funding through IMLS LSTA grants. It was agreed that we need to adjust our fees to remove the need for the courier grants through IMLS, so that we are independent of such disruptions.

Concern was raised around the current instability issues related to the bot DDoS attacks and how that is perceived by patrons. Jon and Beth stressed that it’s currently unpredictable as it happens in flurries and doesn’t seem to stick to a particular pattern thus far, but they’re hopeful that the new tool that they’re coordinating installation on with Emerald Data will mitigate that or at least make it manageable going forward. The assumption is that the bots crawling the database are being used to train AI, but we cannot know that for certain.

Information from a strategic planning meeting with LEO and the State Librarian – Beth and Perry

A couple weeks ago there was a meeting with Stephanie Chase, Wendy Cornelisen, Buzzy Nielsen, Beth, Perry, James and Susie to discuss LSTA funding. The future of LSTA funding is still unknown as of the end of May, as the State Library of Oregon still has not received the full amount outlined in the LSTA award letter. There is currently a lawsuit pending against the further dismantlement of IMLS.

Fundraising will need to start soon, so that the 70-80k needed can be raised by roughly October, otherwise we will need to start winding down courier services so that materials can get back to their owning libraries.

Rachael asked if Orbis Cascade was willing to contribute towards the courier expenses. During the emergency meeting, they had expressed a willingness to help and approach their board to help cover that fee, however no amount was promised, nor was it a certainty that they would be able to help. It could also end up being a one-time thing. No follow up had yet been received.

Beth mentioned that another organization had reached out to her that may be able to contribute. The sense is that fundraising needs to happen at the local level rather than the consortia level, largely because patrons identify with their local library rather than with the consortia as a whole. Stephanie has offered to help assist people through the process of fundraising so that it’s a consistent message amongst the various libraries. We’re also going to submit the LSTA grant request like normal in the hope that it still comes through.

Perry is going to draft a spreadsheet outlining the amount we’re hoping each library will be able to raise to offset their portion with the knowledge that some libraries may be able to raise more, some less.

The city of Lakeview may be closing. The city and county have had some issues with mismanagement of funds and one of the larger companies in the county went bankrupt which drastically affected tax revenue. They’re already looking at fundraising to keep the library open, so they want to know the amount they need to contribute for courier fees. Thankfully, their hospital is being turned around which is great news. Concern about the current system instability due to bot DDoS attacks was raised in regard to how it could negatively affect fundraising.

Rachael asked if there was going to be a committee to help standardize the fundraising efforts, so that it’s coordinated and all libraries are sending out the same basic messaging. Perry was under the impression that Stephanie was going to be acting as the spokesperson or at least making sure that the messaging is coordinated appropriately. Her role in assisting with this needs to be confirmed. Communication on this topic is expected to occur over the listserv so that everyone is on the same page.

Baker Library is already starting to rally around this issue, and has put an additional amount towards their membership fees.

Beth is going to reach out to Orbis Cascade to try and get an answer in regard to the whether they will be able to assist with covering courier fees or not, as well as any other related details.

There was a discussion about increasing the current four year plan to five years so that Sage can be fully self funded for courier costs. There will be more on that in future meetings.

Review of apportionment of representatives among classifications- Required annually per bylaws

Resource Sharing Partner/Special Libraries have dropped to four libraries. We have one representative amongst those libraries and she’s going off the council soon, and no one else from any of those libraries has yet volunteered to replace her. Therefore, if no one comes forward we may have to adjust the bylaws, dropping them to a lower level of representation. We want to make sure they’re still represented but they may have to lose a dedicated council seat since their number has dropped so much. The vote on that can be handled later either by email or in an upcoming meeting, as it requires an adjustment to the bylaws.

The bylaws had been adjusted previously in regard to term limits. Perry as the Sage fiscal agent has a permanent seat. There are currently two (2) seats for circulating schools, with one seat filled and one vacant.  There are three (3) seats for public libraries with population under 5,000, with one seat being vacant.  There are two (2) seats for public libraries with population of 5,000-15,000, and one seat being vacant.  There are three (3) representatives for public libraries with populations over 15,000, with one seat up for nomination/election.  There is one (1) seat for academic libraries, and one (1) seat for resource sharing partner/special libraries.

An adjustment to the bylaws already needs to be done because there are currently three seats apportioned to libraries over 15,000 when the bylaws state there should be two, so therefore we need to revisit this and make any necessary adjustments.

Presentation of slate of candidates and nominations for open User Council Representative positions

Delia Fields has been the representative for Resource Sharing Partner/Special Libraries and is retiring soon. Delia reached out to each of the libraries in the Resource Sharing Partner/Special Libraries and no one has said they would be willing to serve in that seat. Hermiston High School’s librarian is also retiring, so we won’t be able to pull candidates from there.

Currently, the only nomination candidate that we have for libraries over 15,000 is Rachael. Rachael is already serving and has agreed to continue to do so. The floor is otherwise open for nominations.

No additional nominations were presented.

Beth will be sending out an email for votes before the next meeting which is scheduled for July 15th.

Maggie Pando is also retiring after 35 years.

A motion to adjourn the meeting was entertained by Dea. Perry moved to adjourn and Rachael seconded.

Meeting adjourned at 11:16 am Pacific Time.

Next Meeting will be July 15th