GOVERNOR KULONGOSKI APPOINTS CLIFF TROW TO THE STATE LIBRARY BOARD
Former State Senator Cliff Trow will be the newest member of the State Library Board of Trustees. He fills the seat vacated by Freda Vars of Corvallis. Trow served as a State Senator from 1975 to 2003 where he became a champion for library issues. He is the only legislator to have been twice named Oregon Library Association Legislator of the Year. In 1992 he chaired an interim committee on libraries that developed the legislation that created the Ready to Read Grant program and the State Library’s statewide library resource sharing program. In 2002, Trow chaired another interim committee on library cooperation that developed legislation for the statewide database licensing program and statewide e-reference service. Trow is retired from the faculty at Oregon State University, where he was a professor of history for 31 years. He also served for six years on the Board of the Corvallis-Benton County Library. “We are thrilled that Governor Kulongoski has appointed Cliff Trow to the State Library Board,” commented Board Chair Doug Henrichs. “His experience in the legislative process will be of great value to us as we work to improve library service in the years ahead.”
STATE LIBRARY BOARD MEETS IN THE DALLES
The State Library Board will travel to The Dalles for their meeting on June 21st at The Dalles-Wasco County Library. The Board will hear from elected officials and citizens about the new Wasco County Library District that voters approved last November. The measure was the only library district measure to pass in 2006, and the Board hopes to learn from the success of library supporters in Wasco County. In the Board’s business meeting they will hear recommendations from the Library Services and Technology Act Advisory Council about a new 5-year plan for the use of LSTA funds. The Council has been working with a planning committee and library consultants Himmel and Wilson to develop the new plan. The Board will also hear recommendations about LSTA grant project proposals for 2008. In addition, the Talking Book and Braille Services Advisory Council will present recommendations for the use of donation funds to enhance TBABS services in 2007-08. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. An open forum will be held at 11 a.m. Anyone may address the Board on any topic at the open forum.
LEGISLATURE COMPLETES WORK ON LIBRARY BILLS
In May the Oregon Legislature completed
its work on the three bills that concerned libraries in the 2007 session. On
May 8th the Senate passed HB 2116 which targets the State Library’s Ready
to Read Grant program on early literacy and summer reading programs and provides
for a $1,000 minimum grant to small libraries. On May 9th the House passed SB
950 which amends Oregon’s public records law to exempt a library user’s
email address from disclosure. Libraries will need to adopt local policies to
prohibit the disclosure of email addresses. State law already provides an exemption
for library circulation records and a library user’s name, address, and
phone number. The third major library-related bill, SB 5523, the State Library’s
2007-09 budget, was passed in April and signed by the Governor on May 7th. It
provides for a 25% increase in funding for the Ready to Read Grant program and
also provides additional funding for $1,000 minimum grants to small libraries.
STATE LIBRARY LAUNCHES NEW STATE EMPLOYEE INFORMATION CENTER WEBSITE
The Oregon State Library is pleased to announce the launch of our redesigned State Employee Information Center website. This website serves as a research portal for state agency employees and includes quick access to a variety of services we offer to state agency employees. The new design is more intuitive to new users and incorporates feedback from user surveys and usability tests. We hope you will check out the new State Employee Information Center.
NEW OSLIS 2.0 TO FEATURE TOOLS EMBRACED BY STUDENTS
If you’ve heard of Web 2.0 then you know that OSLIS 2.0 will be a welcome redesign of the Oregon School Library Information System for 21st Century students doing research. Web 2.0 generally refers to a second generation of services available on the Web that lets users collaborate and share information online. To that end, the Oregon Association of School Librarians (OASL formerly OEMA) has appointed a task force to develop OSLIS 2.0. In addition to research tools, the OSLIS web portal provides online magazine and newspaper databases (EBSCOhost and NewsBank) to every Oregon student from school and from home, funded by the Oregon Department of Education and the State Library. For the school year 2006-07 thru April, OSLIS users have used EBSCO databases more than 300,000 times and the Oregonian has been accessed almost 17,000 times. OASL intends to make continuous improvements to OSLIS as Web 2.0 tools evolve. Besides providing updated tools for students, OASL will provide better tools for districts to help organize local resources at the school, district, and ESD level. For more information contact: Patty Sorensen, School Library Consultant, patty.sorensen@state.or.us, Oregon State Library 503-378-5011
TBABS SPRING APPEAL GETS UNDERWAY
Talking Book and Braille Services is making its annual spring appeal for charitable gifts to continue many of the services TBABS offers to print-disabled Oregonians. While the majority of our books on cassette and special players are provided by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped at the Library of Congress, TBABS also relies on private contributions. For example, donations fund the purchase of professional recordings of books by Oregon authors, NFB-NEWSLINE audio news service, Unabridged audio books for download, and described videos and DVDs. Gifts of all amounts are greatly appreciated. Donations to TBABS are tax-deductible and may be made online at www.givetotbabs.org.
OREGON SUMMER READING CERTIFICATES ARE HERE
This year the Oregon Department of
Education, Oregon State Library, and Oregon Library Association have coordinated
their efforts to provide a joint Oregon Summer Reading Certificate with funding
from the Oregon Education Association. This effort signifies the commitment
of schools and libraries to the education of Oregon’s youth.
In the past, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) awarded Summer Reading
Certificates for students who read ten books over the summer. The certificates
were distributed via education service districts, school librarians, and public
libraries. Nothing has changed about this program, except for the certificate.
The certificate now has the national Collaborative Summer Library Program artwork
on it and is signed by the State Librarian, Jim Scheppke, and the State Superintendent
of Public Instruction, Susan Castillo. Public libraries will award the Oregon
Summer Reading Certificates to youth who provide a list of the ten books they
read over the summer. They are not required to keep records of the names of
participating children nor the lists of books they read. The Oregon Summer Reading
Certificate is available to download and print at Oregon
Summer Reading Certificates or you can get hard copies from Katie Anderson,
503-378-2528, katie.anderson@state.or.us.
MAY ELECTIONS BRING TWO WINS AND A BIG LOSS
The Jackson County Library will remain closed for the foreseeable future after the defeat of a thee-year local option levy on the May 15th ballot. The measure lost by 42% to 58%, the same result that occurred with a similar measure last November. This, despite the library system being closed since April 6th and a $100,000 campaign to pass the measure. The news was better in Tillamook County where voters renewed a local option levy for five years at a somewhat higher rate than the previous levy. The measure passed with a comfortable 56% majority, and the 56% turnout satisfied the double majority requirement for the May election. The Port Orford Public Library was successful in passing a $450,000 general obligation bond measure to complete the financing for their new library building. Fifty-four percent of voters approved the measure and the turnout was 65%. Voters in Josephine County soundly defeated a law enforcement levy that sought to replace lost federal funds. It was hoped that if the measure passed, it would allow the Josephine County Library to remain open. With the measure’s defeat, the Josephine County Library will close on May 31st. The State Library Board has budgeted LSTA funds to hire Ruth Metz and Associates to assist the libraries in Josephine, Douglas, Jackson, and Malheur counties to develop strategies that might result in stable and adequate funding for library services.
PRIORITY SPECIES GUIDE AVAILABLE FROM FOREST RESOURCES INSTITUTE
Identifying Priority Plants & Animals and Their Habitats: A Guidebook for Forest Landowners sounds like a dry, technical volume. However, this attractive 100-page guide, published by the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, includes excellent photographs and maps, and would be useful to anyone interested in Oregon plants and animals. It includes well-known species, such as the spotted owl and bald eagle, but also many lesser known species, such as the long-legged bat, Johnson's hairstreak, pumice grape-fern, and Ashland thistle. The guide, along with many other educational publications, is available free from the Forest Resources Institute website.
GRANT OPPORTUNITY: THE BIG READ
The
Big Read is a one book, one community reading promotion grant that gives
communities an opportunity to read and discuss a single book. In addition to
a direct grant, each grantee receives resources: teacher’s guides, reader’s
guides, public service announcements, bookmarks, posters, banners, an online
organizer’s guide, and access to a comprehensive website. Many libraries
in Oregon already have one book, one community programs. Perhaps the Big Read
is a good place to seek funding for your next project. The Request for Proposals
can be downloaded from The
Big Read. The proposal deadline is June 29, 2007, and funded activities
should be scheduled to take place between January and June 2008. Questions should
be directed to Arts Midwest at 612-341-0755 or TheBigRead@artsmidwest.org.
I am very reluctant to comment on the tragedy that has befallen public library services in Jackson and Josephine counties, but I suppose I should. I’m reluctant because this feels like more of a time to grieve for the many library employees who have lost their jobs and may not get them back anytime soon, and for the tens of thousands of Oregonians who have lost the library services they have had for a century.
Twelve years ago in this space, after the Josephine County Library passed a 3-year levy with a comfortable 54% majority, I celebrated the fact that all of the counties in Southern Oregon had gotten over the hump and achieved dedicated property tax funding for their libraries. That was before Measure 49 and 50 changed the rules of the game and rolled all dedicated levies into the general funds of local governments. The measures also installed the “double-majority” requirement.
In hindsight, it appears that these measures were the first steps leading to the predicament Jackson and Josephine counties find themselves in today. If the two counties could have kept their short-term serial levies, they probably could have persuaded the voters to make them permanent, by passing library district measures. Measure 50 took away that option.
But something else has changed more recently, and I am somewhat at a loss to say what it is. What is one to make of the fact that in May 2000, 59% of voters in Jackson County voted ‘yes’ to tax themselves to rebuild their entire library system, and seven years later, on the second try, a mere 42% of voters were willing to approve funds to operate the system? Is there any chance that the 54% ‘yes’ vote for library operating funds that Josephine County voters approved in 1995 could be replicated in 2007? I doubt it.
What has changed? Maybe it’s the politicians who have pledged to renew the federal funding that was cut off last year. Many want to believe that county tax rates in Southern Oregon can continue to be the lowest in the state, and that the federal tap can be permanently turned back on. Maybe that will happen, or maybe it’s a case of magical thinking. We will see in the months to come. Maybe a majority has now bought into the notion, promoted by our President, of the ownership society. Public libraries, perhaps more than any public service you can imagine, run completely counter to the notion of the ownership society.
Maybe what has changed was diagnosed correctly by Dr. Dave Gilmour in the Medford Mail Tribune the night of the election. Dr. Gilmour is a physician and a Jackson County Commissioner and a strong library supporter. In talking to his patients prior to the election he heard that many of them were under great financial stress due to high gas prices, consumer debt, and stagnant wages, not to mention concern about the high cost of our country's engagement in two wars. “People are under a cloud right now,” he said. Maybe that, more than anything, is what has changed. – Jim Scheppke
Technical Assistance: 503-932-1004.
Library Development: 503-378-2525, MaryKay
Dahlgreen, Val Vogt, Darci
Hanning, Ann Reed, Patty
Sorensen, Katie Anderson.
Talking Book and Braille Services: 503-378-5389, Susan
Westin, Marcia Martin.
Government Research and Electronic Services: 503-378-5030, Robert
Hulshof-Schmidt.
State Librarian: 503-378-4367, Jim
Scheppke.
LTLO Editor: 503-378-2464, Robin
Speer.
Letter to Libraries Online is published monthly by the Oregon State Library. Editorial office: LTLO, Oregon State Library, 250 Winter St. NE, Salem, Oregon 97301-3950, 503-378-2464, editor: Robin Speer.
Letter to Libraries Online is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form on the publications page at the Oregon State Library's homepage: http://www.oregon.gov/OSL. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Oregon State Library. News items or articles should be sent to Robin Speer, or mailed to LTLO, Oregon State Library, 250 Winter St. NE, Salem, Oregon 97301-3950.
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