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Library Council of Washington

Meeting Notes
November 6, 2000
9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.


LIBRARY COUNCIL OF WASHINGTON PRESENT  

  • John Backes, Academic Libraries 
  • Susan Baker, School Libraries
  • Carol Cahill, Public Libraries
  •  Nancy Carroll, Cultural Diversity
  • Ann Marie Clark, Special Libraries 
  • Michael Eisenberg, Information School
  • Nancy Graf, School Libraries 
  • Neel Parikh, Disadvantaged
  • Linda Pierce, Academic Libraries 
  • Michael Scroggins, Information Technology
  • Sharon Winters, Information Technology 
  • Jonalyn Woolf-Ivory, Public Libraries

WASHINGTON STATE LIBRARY PRESENT

  • Jan Walsh, Assistant Director

  • Jeff Martin, Grants Specialist

  • Karen Goettling, Library Consultant

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

MEETING NOTES

Motion: The Council moved, seconded, and approved the September 13, 2000 meeting notes substituting the version of the Council objectives included in the Council packet for the version in the draft minutes.

AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING:

  • Discussion of relationship of LCW and WLA.
  • Out-of-cycle requests and mid-year budget adjustments.

8:45-9:15 a.m. Morning tour of the host library facility (repeated at the end of the day)
Host Carol Cahill led the Library Council of Washington on a tour of the Port Townsend Public Library.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

  • Linda Pierce is on the Nominations Committee for WLA and asked for suggestions and/or volunteers for candidates for WLA offices.
  • Mike Eisenberg announced that the new Director of Libraries for UW will be Betsy Wilson.

9:40-9:45 a.m. Review meeting agenda.
Discussion of relationship of LCW and WLA. Should LCW have an ex officio member on WLA's executive committee? The aim would be to increase communications and encourage the development of proposals outside LCW. LCW members participate on an individual basis in other associations (ACRL, SLA, WLMA), but WLA represents that most broad-based library association. An option would be to for WLA to have an ex officio seat on LCW. Neel will have an informal conversation with Cindy Cunningham about possibilities and will report results on the listserv. Agenda item for next meeting.

Meeting date with Commission. LCW's goal in requesting the March date was to meet after the first round of proposals and before making a final recommendation to the Commission. The Commission will discuss dates at their December meeting.

Council discussed membership in light of Art Blauvelt's possible resignation from his position representing rural libraries. Neel will call Art, let him know that his support and input have been appreciated, ask if he can attend the January meeting as a stopgap, and let him know that the Council will begin the recruitment process. LCW recommended reappointment of existing members whose terms were up. Lethene Parks, trustee in Stevens County Rural Library District, was suggested as a possible replacement. Jan will see if she's willing to be considered.

For the most recent vacancy in membership, LCW advertised the vacancy soliciting applications.

9:45-10:15 a.m. State wide plan development

Update on statewide forums
Karen Goettling reported on the statewide forums, noting that there had been lower attendance than 1996, perhaps only a third. Recurring themes included: marketing, services to children, diversity, 24/7 reference, coordination, internet access. There is a deadline of December 1 for the library community to submit feedback for the statewide plan directly.

Writing an updated statewide plan
Mary Campbell, the facilitator, is willing to assist in the first draft. The sub-committee already working on the statewide plan revision process will also be part of the writing process. Karen will send complete set of notes from all forums, a copy of the last plan, plus draft prepared by herself and Mary Campbell to the sub-committee. Sharon Winters and Jonalyn Woolf-Ivory will revise the draft. Nancy Graf and John Backes will be readers. Council discussed the need to strike a balance between drafting a plan general enough to cover the entire state but specific enough to contain actual strategic direction.

Council discussed encouraging multi-type cooperation for statewide goals along the lines of SDL. Development of this concept may be a useful topic of discussion with the Commission. Sharon reported that some of the larger Western WA public libraries are looking at a joint system purchase. The group includes Tacoma Public Schools and Multnomah PL. While there are a number of library associations in WA divided by type of library, there is not a lot of communication across lines. SDL is the first program that has involved libraries across types. Any model for such collaboration would need to confer specific benefit for members, cannot be imposed from above, and needs to be perceived as maintaining local identity.

10:15-10:30 a.m. Break

10:30-11:15 a.m. FY2002 LSTA proposal process

General comments of changes to overall process:

Will people fill out the form? Neel and Jonalyn have both had people approach them with ideas but not with full proposals. LCW members may need to work with constituents to flesh out to a full proposal.

Re Statement no. 6 from the "Marketing LSTA" document - if LCW identifies specific strategies as having greater weight for evaluating proposals for a certain year, these should be published. E.g. Collaboration between libraries and types of libraries is currently one of the review criteria.

John wanted reaction to his statement to the effect that 'It is the respondents' responsibility to develop the proposals, not WSL staff or LCW.' In general, group wanted to maintain the option of LCW or WSL staff making proposals. They also saw some value in LCW members being involved in the writing/development process. (statement in previous minutes)

Updates on efforts to market the proposal process:

October 11 sent out ideas for marketing.

  • Recommend a one page factsheet on proposals available on web and to LCW. Something like this has been developed by the Consultants Team and will be made available.
  • Make proposal process and forms available on WSL web site and other sites (WLA, WLMA, etc.). Site should allow for download and printing.
  • There is a short term need to get information out immediately to allow for proposals by mid-December. The form will remain the same for this coming cycle.
  • FAQ's One topic could be "How to figure a budget?"
  • Site should include a few examples of successful proposals in "How to apply."

Council agreed to follow the recommendations from the LSTA marketing sub-committee.

  • Revised chart of continuing initiatives
  • Sharon W. raised a question about the necessity of funding for IT training/LITWG at the amount listed.
  • K-12 survey - Steering Committee may try to locate 2001 money for survey.

Budgets for projects
A budget form has been developed as part of the proposal application process. The form may need some narrative to explain categories and terms. Also the applicant may need to include some narrative to support budget requests. Applicants need to make budgets somewhat reality-based in order to efficiently use federal funds and not run up against spending deadlines. In evaluating proposals it might be helpful to reflect total costs of projects including those that are staffed by regular WSL staff. Could this be reflected in the form, i.e. could the form include a place for costs of regularly funded staff as well as project-paid staff? The form should be part of the second, more formal part of the application process. Should marketing be included in narrative instructions for 'contracted services'?

WSL sees the need for staff dedicated to project oversight to maintain schedules, oversee budgets, and plan RFP and contract processes.

Proposal ideas received to date:

  • Jonalyn and Jan should respond to B. Ziegmund's inquiry about the possibility of bridge funds.
  • Does it fit under LSTA criteria? Yes, it does fit under no. 6. Is it too late to apply for 2001 funds? Yes, the money from FY2001 is allocated. Money left from FY2000 has been committed.
  • Does the Council need a procedure for dealing with isolated projects that are not full proposals. Next meeting agenda items: Out-of-cycle requests and Mid-year budget adjustments.

11:15-11:45 a.m. Council objectives (discussion led by Neel Parikh)

Review in light of previous discussions

  • Under Areas of Interest: collaboration & group purchases (remove OCLC - this is a specific vendor and the objective should not be so limited).
  • Development of a one-page flyer: This document would be for LCW, not for general distribution.
  • "Incorporate..." replace with "Use the Statewide Plan to Guide LCW activities."

11:45-12:00 a.m. Library Council discussion forum on WSL's LCW web page
Is it useful and if so, what should be the desired content? General consensus was that the threaded discussion page was not used and should be removed. A recommended option was an Email form for questions for LCW. Inquiries should go to Jeff who will refer to appropriate LCW member.

12:00-12:45 p.m. Working lunch/sharing. Thanks to the Friends of the Port Townsend Library for providing drinks and snacks for the lunch.

12:45-1:15 p.m. Marketing report
Mike Eisenberg reviewed meeting held at UW on September 14, 2000. Anne Marie presented a preliminary draft of a Marketing Initiative. This will go back to marketing group from earlier meeting for feedback. The challenge is to promote libraries generally and to also give prominence to local institutions. Some LSTA initiatives are already in the process of planning and mounting campaigns. It will also be important to teach librarians how to sell their services and programs to their users, their boards, their local governments. WLA has appointed a person, Mary Kelley, to attend Marketing Group. Michael Scroggins raised the question of asking Qwest to distribute a flyer with bills announcing the money that will go into connecting public libraries to the K-20 network.

  • Issue of scalability - a general marketing campaign will need to work for many different groups, audiences. Images, colors can be used, re-used for various initiatives and audiences.
  • Evaluation - how will we know if the campaign has increased awareness? Produced new customers? The general campaign should build on the ALA campaign as much as possible.
  • To ensure coordination of marketing efforts, it would be necessary for an LCW member or a member of the marketing group on Information Literacy RFP review committee. Anne Marie is willing to review proposals. John will follow-up to see if IL Steering Committee for their approval. Michael suggested that we should start to think in terms of strategic partnerships rather than just customer/vendor relationships. (e.g. could Bell &Howell advertise 'get databases at your library') In view of earlier discussion that proposals shouldn't come just from the LCW, this would need to have a steering committee with LCW representation.

1:15-2:15 p.m. Reports and updates on initiatives It was requested that the name of preparer be added to quarterly reports.
Connectivity 1999 wrap-up (Jeff Martin) Council liked the report format presented, would like to include county of recipient.

Jeff is still following up on last minute reports. Most projects were satisfactorily completed. See report in packet. Council inquired about the possibility of seeing the individual evaluations of projects? Final report form does have space for evaluation and promotion. It does not necessarily cover questions like "What would you do differently?" "Do you have advice for someone doing a similar project?"

Consumer information Clearinghouse (Karen Goettling)
Find-It Consumer kickoff date is set for December 6. Marketing firm has been hired. TV and radio PSA's, print media, information packets, brochures, posters, post cards are planned. Staff would like libraries to participate in virtual ribbon cutting. We have video of Gary Locke for promotion. Staff is writing a proposal supporting Find-It Consumer to Qwest for some of the money they are offering for telecommunications projects.

Diversity report (Neel Parikh)
Steering Committee has met twice. They will be doing a general needs assessment by surveying libraries. Not sure at this point whether the next phase will result in grant cycle, or establishment of some sort of service center with distributed collections, processing of language materials center, etc. The committee has contacted other states to see what they're doing. Some states have very advanced programs, others less so. Without some continuing state funding for libraries, it makes it much more difficult to plan any ongoing program. Health information could be an important area of collaboration. Recruitment of diverse library staff is a continuing problem for libraries.

Early learning report (Neel Parikh)
Training sessions are complete as of today. Training sessions have been very good. The committee was well put together and resulted in librarians being invited to serve on other committees working in this area. KCLS will be working on developing a web site. The initiative will probably will result in a listserv community as well. Projects need to remember to communicate with ISchool students about all these initiatives and especially anything on children.

Grants program administration (Jeff Martin)
Jan and Jeff are attending LSTA Coordinator's conference next week in D.C. They will be working on next 5-year LSTA plan.

Information literacy initiative (John Backes)
Developing RFP for curriculum training librarians in IL with emphasis on public and special librarians. Steering Committee had first meeting with Reflector Group.

K-12 summit (Nancy Graf)
Committee has met twice in last few months. School librarians are still stinging from libraries' non-inclusion in ELR's. Committee plans survey to correlate educational success with school libraries and library media specialists. Will try to do as soon as possible if any 2001 money can be reallocated. Committee will also prepare proposal for 2002 on advocacy training and upgrading skills of library media specialists. Mike questioned the efficacy of doing another study. The studies have been done in 3 states with similar results. Feedback to the steering committee - maybe re-examine the survey process. Are there other avenues that are being pursued? Nancy reiterated that other avenues have been tried, but the committee felt that the survey is a necessary step to advocating for change. Council agreed that a political plan is also necessary.

SDL report (Ann Marie Clark)
Nov. 15 ends fall trials. E-book conferences sponsored in October was very successful. Next activity will occur during legislative session to advocate for state funding. Legislative sponsors will be sought after elections. Council needs a longer presentation about the legislative strategy for SDL.

Digital Images
Carol passed around the mockups of the proposed Best Practices web site.

2:15-2:30 p.m. Wrap-up, items for next agenda, review of assignments

  • Neel will contact Art in regard to his status
  • Neel will contact Cindy regard to WLA/LCW relationship
  • Statewide plan writing
  • Jeff & other staff will create proposal section of web site
  • Jeff will request discussion thread be pulled
  • Mike E. will work to rework marketing proposal
  • Anne Marie will work with ILSC on evaluation marketing proposals
  • Jeff will prepare 5-yr LSTA evaluation paper
  • Nancy will report on k-12 request for survey funds
  • Jan, Nancy C. Mike E. will do some thinking about statewide consortia/partnerships
  • Jan will report on project management proposal
  • Carry through on publicity activities for proposal process

2:30 p.m. Adjourn

2:30-2:45 p.m. Travel from city hall to library for afternoon tour.

2:45-3:15 p.m. Afternoon tour of the host library facility.


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