OREGON STATE LIBRARY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING

February 3, 2006

Oregon State Library

Salem, Oregon

 

 

Board members present: Jim Hayden, Bill Sullivan, Richard Turner, Freda Vars, Yvonne Williams, and by conference phone – Sue Burkholder.

 

Staff present: Robin Speer, Jim Scheppke, MaryKay Dahlgreen, Robert Hulshof-Schmidt, Arlene Weible.

 

Visitors: none

 

Chair Hayden called the meeting to order at 9:35 am.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

 

Vars moved to approve the minutes from the December 9, 2005 Board meeting. Williams seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

 

REPORTS OF BOARD CHAIR AND TRUSTEES

 

Hayden reported attending the 2005 Annual Conference of the American Library Association (ALA) in San Antonio, Texas and received, on behalf of the State Library, the American Association of School Libraries Certificate of Commendation in recognition of its partnership in establishing and maintaining the Oregon School Library Information System. He presented the certificate to Jim Scheppke. Also, Susan Castillo, the state Superintendent of Schools received the same commendation.

 

Sullivan reported that he and Williams met with the Talking Book and Braille Services (TBABS) team. The team continues to operate well and morale is high. The team voiced a concern about the on-going friction with the National Library Service (NLS) over the future of digital talking books and suggest looking for a new approach to the communication link. The Unabridged program is doing well and now has over 150 patrons enrolled. The team is currently sending out 30 boxes of Braille books per day overseas. The Fund Development Officer position is open for recruitment in February. The team is participating in a diabetes conference this weekend to enhance awareness of our program.

 

Sullivan reported that the Lane Library League has become a volunteer organization. They explored ideas for fundraisers to fund the early literacy, teen literature, emergent literacy, and other programs, but did not identify any.

 

Turner reported that he and Hayden met with the Library Development team. They are in the process of creating a half time position for a school library consultant, and will re-open the recruitment for a youth services consultant with revisions to the requirements. There were 970 entries from Oregon in the Letters About Literature contest. The Pacific Northwest Library Association Conference is scheduled for August 9, 10, 11. Oregon authors will be represented. The team made presentations about the Plinkit program in southern Oregon. They will be producing a users training manual. There is a concern that the Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) Council has more decisions to make than one meeting per year allows. They will analyze the costs and logistics of holding additional meetings.

 

Vars met with the Government Research and Electronic Services (GRES) team. They have begun receiving material for the digital state documents repository. The Wellness Collection is now in place in the reference room and is available to state agencies. The Legislative Library has sent over material that is currently being cataloged. The Spring Lecture Series is scheduled to begin March 15th with a presentation about Lewis and Clark and their interaction with Native Americans. The team is very satisfied with their new manager.

 

Vars reported that the Linn Library district will be on the 2008 ballot for funding. She shared articles from the Albany Democrat-Herald on this issue. She also distributed bookmarks from the Benton County Cultural Coalition that show how funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust is distributed, and bookmarks promoting Library2Go in Corvallis. Vars also shared a newsletter from the Siletz Valley Friends of the Library indicating they have raised $751,000 to build a new library. In Monroe, the Corvallis-Benton County Library Foundation is giving seed money to plan for a new library.

 

HEARING

 

Hayden announced at 9:50 that a public hearing would begin at 10:00 providing an opportunity for public comment on the rules revisions proposed for OAR Chapter 543, Divisions 40, 50, 60, and 70.

 

At 10:00 Hayden opened the public hearing. Scheppke presented two letters for consideration. The first letter was from Barbara O’Neill, the Chair of the Statewide Database Licensing Advisory Committee (SDLAC). It states that the committee supports the proposal to add tribal libraries to the program. They support the subsidy for databases and the inclusion of a representative from tribal libraries to the SDLAC. Also, they propose that a representative from the Organization for Educational Technology and Curriculum (OETC) remain as an ex-officio, non-voting member of SDLAC.

 

The second letter was from Christine A. Chute, Attorney-in-Charge, Business Activities Section of the Department of Justice and is the documents liaison for the State Library. The suggested comments are for changes in wording for OAR 543-070.  Both of these letters were submitted as testimony to be discussed under the new business item. At 10:05 Hayden closed the public hearing.

 

REPORTS OF THE STATE LIBRARIAN AND STAFF

 

Hulshof-Schmidt introduced Arlene Weible as the new Cataloging Services Librarian in the GRES team. She comes with Federal documents experience and will be a good asset to the team. The Board welcomed her to the library staff.

 

Scheppke gave an update to the Executive Committee minutes. The 2006 LSTA allocation is $2,194,490, an increase of $60,053 from 2005. It results in an unprogrammed balance of 2006 funds of about $155,000. The Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) voted at their January 20th meeting to take action if the National Library Service (NLS) continues to deny permission to load a sample of their audiobook content into the Unabridged shared collection.

 

The Oregon Digital Library Consortium currently has all major public libraries, except for Eugene, placing a link on their webpage to connect with Library2Go. The costs are divided based on the relative size of service area populations. A great advantage for this program is that the books never get stolen or wear out.

 

In TBABS we have reached agreement with the Elections Division to distribute audio and Braille voters’ pamphlets for the Primary and General Elections this year. In Library Development we have partnered on three grant proposals. The first grant proposal is with Emporia State University to fund education for minority students to attend library school. The second grant proposal is with the Western Council of State Libraries to fund two national tribal library conferences. The third grant proposal is with Washington State Library to coordinate training programs for school librarians. This will allow for shared curriculum and training for about 500 school library staff throughout the state. OSL will need to handle the funds. We will ask the Legislature for retroactive permission to receive the grant. This would have been brought to the Board earlier if we had known we were going to be asked to administer some of the grant funds.

 

Scheppke called attention to a booklet created by the L-net librarians called I Use It All The Time. Scheppke referred to the staff reports beginning on page 15 of the Board Packet. The Oregon Benchmarks report on page 19 shows that in 2005 only 80% of Oregonians were served by a public library that meets minimum service criteria set by the State Library. This is the lowest percentage since 1998 and reflects the struggles that some local governments are having to maintain their services. The Board had a discussion about what steps could be made to increase this percentage. It was noted that many of the libraries not reaching benchmarks are not failing in every category. Many need to be open more hours to meet the goals. OSL has had this Oregon Benchmark for the past fifteen years. The report has been sent to the libraries who are on the “underserved” list for the first time. The Staying Connected report is on page 27. Libraries are able to purchase computers, send us their receipts and we reimburse half of the expense.

 

Hayden reported that his term of service ends June 30, 2006 and he has recruited two people who are interested in applying for his seat: MaryBeth Pearl-Gent and Leslie Weigand.

 

Hulshof-Schmidt reported on the results of the customer satisfaction survey performed by the GRES team. The survey was sent to 27% of our users and had an 11% response. In general the response was very positive. There were sixty people who responded that they would like a personal contact from the state library. The report and the comments will be sent to the Board members.

 

OPEN FORUM

 

No one came forward to comment.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

 

Scheppke presented the proposed changes to OAR, Chapter 543, Division 40. This rule provides a framework for awarding grants to public libraries to establish, develop or improve public library services to children. This amendment corrects the name of the office that produces the publication that is used to determine populations served and removes the maintenance of support requirement for eligibility as required by HB 2916. The Board received no public comment. Vars moved to accept the revisions as stated. Williams seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

 

Scheppke presented the proposed changes to OAR, Chapter 543, Division 50. This rule provides definitions for a program of the State Library that is no longer operational. The change repeals this rule to conform with statute. Williams moved to accept the recommendation. Turner seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

 

Scheppke presented the proposed changes to OAR, Chapter 543, Division 60. This rule provides the framework for the Statewide Database Licensing Program in public, school, academic, and tribal libraries in Oregon. This amendment provides for the addition of tribal libraries to the program as required by HB 2674. Testimony from the public hearing was considered for retaining a member of OETC to remain on SDLAC. The staff supports this recommendation. Other changes are to add tribal libraries in this rule. Vars moved to amend the proposal to include a member of OETC to remain on SDLAC. Sullivan seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Sullivan moved to approve the proposal with the amendment. Williams seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

 

Scheppke presented the proposed changes to OAR, Chapter 543, Division 70. This rule establishes the framework for the state documents depository program. Testimony from the public hearing was considered for making adjustments to wording to bring this rule in alignment with the statute. Sullivan moved to adopt the recommendations from the Department of Justice and amend the proposal. Vars seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Sullivan moved to adopt the rule as amended. Williams seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

 

Scheppke presented the proposed changes to Library Performance Measures in 2005-07 for presentation to the Join Legislative Audit Committee. The Board asked for clarification of the changes and discussed the staff recommendations. Sullivan moved to accept the proposed changes as recommended by staff. Turner seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

 

Hayden made a comment about the report on page 91 that the number of OSLIS hits are up to 85,000 on the OSLIS website in December. This is due, in part, to the additional trainings that have occurred. Vars commented that news reporters are using the L-net service.

 

The April 5, 2006 Board meeting will be held the State Library in Salem. The OLA conference is April 5-7 in Salem.

 

The meeting adjourned at 12:07.