OREGON STATE LIBRARY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING

August 12, 2005

Oregon State Library

Salem, Oregon

Board members present: Sue Burkholder, Jim Hayden, Doug Henrichs, Bill Sullivan, Richard Turner, Freda Vars, and Yvonne Williams.

Staff present: Jim Scheppke, Robin Speer, MaryKay Dahlgreen, Lee Rengert, Evelyn Kimbrell, Chris Adams, and Val Vogt.

Visitors: Leah Griffith, representing the Oregon Library Association.

Chair Hayden called the meeting to order at 9:35 a.m. Hayden introduced and welcomed Sue Burkholder as the newest Board member. Burkholder invited the Board and staff to visit the library at Southern Oregon University again to see the new mosaic floor in the rotunda. She also shared her background as a librarian.

Scheppke introduced Susan Westin as the new Program Manager for the Talking Book and Braille Services team. Hayden presented Bill Sullivan with a gift of appreciation for his service as the Board Chair for the past year.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Williams moved to approve the minutes from the June 17, 2005 Board meeting. Sullivan seconded. The motion passed with one abstention.

REPORTS OF BOARD CHAIR AND TRUSTEES

Hayden reported that he attended the National American Library Association Conference in Chicago and that it was an excellent conference. The Executive Committee met by phone July 14, 2005 and the minutes from the meeting are included in the Board packet. Scheppke mentioned that the meeting included a discussion about the Braille collection and the new agreement with the Utah State Library.

Williams and Sullivan met with Library Development Services. Sullivan reported that an early literacy planning initiative is underway, funded by an LSTA grant. MaryKay Dahlgreen is assisting with regional meetings about this. There are twelve libraries that did not sign up for the EBSCO databases. The team recognizes a need to offer training to librarians for the EBSCO databases and L-net. The team suggested adding this as a performance measure.

Turner reported meeting with Library Administration Services. With the end of the 2005 legislative session there is now an official budget for the Library. There are four recruitments in process along with the end of the biennium business office requirements. They asked that the Board members correctly complete the travel reimbursement forms.

Burkholder reported meeting with the Talking Book and Braille Services team. They are placing an emphasis on expanding the user base for TBABS services. The team has a successful fund development program.

Vars reported meeting with TBABS as well. The new computer system is working well for the patrons. The Braille books are off the shelves and boxed up. They are advertising to other libraries who might want some of the Braille collection.

Henrichs and Hayden met with the Government Research and Electronic Services team. Hayden reported that training sessions are being held in Central Oregon. The team has worked to develop specialized training for clients and it has been well received. There are two vacant librarian positions that are currently in recruitment. A plan is being developed and will be in place by January 6, 2006 for the electronic documents repository project. The team is working with Library Development Services to host the Plinkit System which is software that enables small public libraries to develop better websites. This program reached the end of a two year grant period and GRES was asked to continue the work hosting the servers. Library Development will handle the customer service portion of the program. We are testing the program with other states to see if it will meet their needs.

Henrichs reported that the GRES team has initiated a letter from the State Librarian that is automatically sent to new state employees. The letter welcomes them and tells them about the services available. Henrichs asked the team how they felt about the legislature changing the performance measures without input from the agency. The team responded in a positive manner that it gives them an opportunity to be creative and challenged. The L-net program is moving forward with contact to other libraries for participation in the program.

Hayden reported that the Oregon Education Media Association conference meets in October and he invites all Board members to attend.

Scheppke reported that currently there are five Oregon public libraries in budget crises: The Dalles-Wasco County, Oregon City, Malheur County, Cornelius, and Josephine County libraries. There are others that are on the edge of crisis. There seems to be a growing national trend of library closures due to budget cuts.

The Oregon Department of Education newsletter Pipeline featured an article about the Oregon School Library Information System (OSLIS). MaryKay Dahlgreen has worked to cultivate a good relationship with ODE and they now seem to be showing more concern for school libraries. Sheryl Steinke, a retired librarian in Eugene, has done an excellent job chairing the OSLIS steering committee for OEMA.

Scheppke referred to the budget report on page 14 in the Board packet. We have under spent our budget and have managed it well. We have four staff vacancies that have contributed to this. The Statewide Database Licensing report on page 19 will be available on an annual basis.

A summary of the bills passed by the 2005 Legislative Assembly are listed on page 20. Last fall we were asked if we wanted to introduce our bills in the House or the Senate. We chose to introduce them in the House and that strategy worked well. Representative Vicki Berger helped move the bills as chair of the House General Government Committee. She worked well with Nan Heim, the lobbyist for OLA. Nan Heim is a very effective lobbyist. The Big Picture report is located on page 21 and indicates we will begin work on the 2007-09 budget in December.

Scheppke introduced staff from each team to talk about the quarterly performance report located on page 18.

Evelyn Kimbrell reported for the Talking Book and Braille Services (TBABS) team that the new registered individuals figure was high due to the new KLAS computer system conversion. The figures are not accurate, and it would be more informative to consider the increase in circulation. The Board asked for an explanation about volunteer hours for TBABS. Kimbrell reported that volunteer hours are down largely due to staff working more efficiently, and streamlined volunteer tasks. The customer service telephone survey they conducted received a 99% “excellent” or “above average” rating. Donations were $283,305 which exceeded the goal. The Unabridged project for on-line download of digital books is being beta tested and now has seventy patrons signed up. We are trying to develop more use for the Web Braille program developed by the National Library Service.

Lee Rengert reported for the Library Administration Services (LAS) team. The Legislature recently removed the administrative performance measures from the state reports. However, we will continue to report on these performance measures to the Board. Volunteer working hours were decreased due to some changes in the program. We discontinued a working relationship with the Marion County Community Services program. As a result of this change, production results increased, and volunteer personnel issues were reduced. The AA parity numbers continue to be low. We have increased recruitment efforts in the past two years and 20% of recent interviews were with minorities. The average training hours for staff were 27 hours per staff for last year. This is a 100% increase. We have successfully implemented a training and development plan for each employee. We also have a training tracking program and system for providing feedback to the teams on a quarterly basis. We are also helping staff become aware of available training opportunities. LAS has successfully recruited and hired three program managers and two student workers in the past year. The Business Office received the State’s Gold Star Certificate for making every accounting deadline for the fourth year in a row. The volunteer policy was re-written and a handbook was created for training volunteers.

Chris Adams reported for the Government Research and Electronic Services (GRES) team. Research transactions for state government employees had an increase of 28%. The percentage of state employees registered for State Employee Information Center is at the highest level ever at 18%. Marketing efforts have resulted in 800 new sign-ups in one month. An automated message now goes out to new state employees describing the Library’s services. The team continues to work to identify why people are not using their service. The average daily visits to the State Employee Information Center are up 420%. The Oregon.gov search box average daily visits are up 186%. The team can now look at what searches people are doing. TRAKsmart registered customers is up 3%. This system tracks legislation. We think that some people are using the Department of Administrative Services tracking service instead of ours. People are ordering articles directly from vendors on databases and we loose the statistics on them. We are working with vendors to capture those statistics. The LISTsmart subscribers are up 457%. This is mainly word-of-mouth marketing and the system supports itself with little extra help. Marketing and training presentations to state agencies is up 13% largely due to personalized training for state agencies. State documents distributed to depository libraries is down 25% due to many documents being published on the web. Volunteer hours are down 21% due to more streamlined processes. The average training hours were 34 hours per staff.

Val Vogt reported for the Library Development team. Hours in consultation with librarians and citizens were down 14% largely due to a loss of staff in the team. State grants administered were up 11%. The Federal grants administered were down 84% due to the end of the interlibrary loan net lender reimbursement program. Workshops presented were up 59% due to the Gates Grant trainings. Presentations made were up 24% with 1,440 attendees.

OPEN FORUM

Leah Griffith is the president-elect of the Oregon Library Association (OLA). She reported that a conference committee has been established for planning the next OLA conference for April 5-7, 2006. The Pacific Northwest Library Association Conference will be held in Eugene on August 9-11, 2006. OLA is glad to have the maintenance of effort requirements removed from the Ready to Read Grant program. This will help to simplify the process and more libraries will possibly apply. OLA held an annual retreat with OEMA last fall at Silver Falls State Park. Both organizations share many of the same issues. There was more participation in the OLA retreat this year. The next OLA Board meeting will be August 19 in Newberg. OLA has suspended the Trustees and Friends Division of OLA. They may have a trustees and friends round table to keep some activity available.

OLA supports the Trustees handbook as a useful tool and would like to see it updated. Dahlgreen stated that Ruthann Lidman is up-dating the small handout version. We would like to put the Trustees binder information on our website after it is up-dated. Griffith reported that the collaborative literacy conference for early childhood literacy meeting will be held at Linfield College in McMinnville in July 2006. The organizations participating are OEMA, OLA, Oregon Reading Association, ODE, and OSL.

NEW BUSINESS

Henrichs reported that he met with Renata in the Business office, reviewed the State Librarian’s financial transactions for 2004-05, and found it all to be in proper order. Williams moved to accept Henrich’s report and approve the State Librarian’s financial transactions for 2004-05. Vars seconded. The motion passed with one abstention.

Scheppke presented a recommendation to authorize expenditures, in accordance with the Centennial plan, for the annual meeting of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), a total of $1,000.00. Vars moved to accept the recommendation to authorize the expenditures. Burkholder seconded. The Board had a discussion about an original plan that included a literary roadmap project that has not yet been produced. Scheppke explained that due to the many staff shortages, it was not possible to make it happen within the time frame. Sullivan inquired as to why he was not informed and if the expenditures for the COSLA event were coming from the same Centennial funds. Scheppke explained that the COSLA event was always part of the original Centennial plans. Dahlgreen added that due to lack of staff available, this project became a lower priority, but that we may be able to accomplish it for the state’s sesquicentennial celebration. The motion passed unanimously.

Hayden reminded the Board to complete the State Librarian evaluation forms included in the Board packet and it would expedite the process if they would mail them directly to Hayden before the next Board meeting. He will prepare a report for the Board to review at the October meeting.

The next Board meeting will be held October 21, 2005 in Milton-Freewater. The December 9, 2005 meeting will be in Salem. Hayden requested that the February 2006 meeting be held on February 3, 2006.

Scheppke referred the Board to the last letter in their Board packet. Henrichs invited the Board and staff to a dinner at his home the evening of October 20^th.

The meeting adjourned at 12:30 p.m.