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.
- 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.