[Libs-Or] LTLO November 2007

[Robin Speer]

Letter To Libraries Online
An Electronic Newsletter from the Oregon State Library.......Volume 17, Issue 11, November 2007 
Library Board News

STATE LIBRARY BOARD AWARDS GRANTS AND AMENDS RULES
At their meeting in Salem on October 21st, the State Library Board of Trustees awarded 14 competitive LSTA grants for 2008. The grants totaled $822,175. The Board also approved a change to the administrative rules for the Ready to Read Grant program following a public hearing. The rule change was needed to implement HB 2116 which stipulates that grant funds may only be used for early literacy programs and the "statewide summer reading program." The bill requires the State Library Board to set a definition of "statewide summer reading program." After hearing from representatives from Multnomah County Library in the public hearing, the Board defined "statewide summer reading program" to refer to the collaborative summer reading program that the Library supports with LSTA funds. In response to the testimony from Ellen Fader of Multnomah County Library, the Board indicated that they intend for libraries to have a lot of latitude in their implementation of the collaborative program to meet every community's unique needs. In other business the Board made a technical revision to the LSTA Five-Year Plan and approved the 2008 LSTA program as recommended by the LSTA Advisory Council. However, they also decided to reconsider three projects not awarded funds at their December meeting when they hope the Congress will have finalized the FFY 2008 LSTA appropriation. The Board also reviewed the State Librarian's accomplishments and set goals for the State Librarian in 2007-08.
The next meeting of the State Library Board will be on December 13-14, 2007, at the State Library in Salem.



State Library News

LSTA GRANTS FOR 2008
The State Library Board of Trustees met October 19 and funded LSTA competitive grants for 2008. The fourteen FY 2008 grants approved total $822,175.
City of Cornelius Library
Promoting Targeted Library Services to Latinos
$48,525

Corvallis-Benton County Public Library for the Oregon Digital Library Consortium
Demonstration of Service Innovation Through Shared Electronic Delivery of Resources
$75,500

Hermiston Public Library
Ready, Set, Zoom
$30,280

Multnomah County Library
Families Reading Together/Familias Leyendo Juntas
$87,570

Multnomah County Library
This is How I Use My Library
$113,841

Oregon Association of School Libraries
Oregon Battle of the Books, Year 2
$75,500

Oregon Health & Science University Library
MedlinePlus Go Local Oregon
$93,248

Oregon Historical Society
The Oregon Tribes Project
$40,500

Oregon Institute of Technology Library
Crater Lake National Park Digital Research Collection
$89,506

Oregon Library Association/Oregon Authors Committee
Oregon Authors Website
$24,500

Portland Areas Library System (PORTALS)/Portland Community College
All Aboard NW CENTRAL: Enhancing an online training resource for libraries in Oregon and beyond
$12,160

Salem Public Library
Librarians for the Future, Year 2
$36,000

University of Oregon Libraries
Envisioning Oregon
$34,420

University of Oregon Libraries
Local & Regional Documents Archive for Oregon
$60,625


LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE
The 2008 Letters About Literature contest has begun! Letters About Literature is a national reading and writing contest for students in 4th -12th grade. Students write a letter to the author (living or dead) of a book that changed the way they perceive themselves or the world around them. Each year three winners are selected from Oregon to go on to compete at the national level. This year, thanks to the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and Target, the national prizes have improved. The six national winners will receive a $500 Target gift certificate and a $10,000 grant for the local public or school library of their choice. The twelve national honorable mentions will receive a $100 Target gift certificate and a $1,000 grant for the local public or school library of their choice. The deadline for entering is December 14, 2007. To learn more about the contest go to Letters About Literature or contact Katie Anderson, 503-378-2528. 
OSL BECOMES REGIONAL FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY
The Oregon State Library received the designation of Regional Federal Depository Library for Oregon in October. With the approval of Senators Wyden and Smith and the U.S. Government Printing Office, the Library will share collecting responsibilities with three academic research library partners at Portland State University, the University of Oregon, and Oregon State University. This innovative agreement will help to improve access and the preservation of federal government documents for the citizens of Oregon. The State Library will also coordinate training and outreach and provide administrative support to other Federal Depository Libraries in Oregon. For further information, contact Arlene Weible, 503-378-5020.



Other Library News

NUMBER OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANS DOWN AGAIN
According to statistics released by the Oregon Department of Education in September, the number of certified school librarians dropped below 400 in the 2006-07 school year to 389. That is less than half the number of school librarians that worked in Oregon schools in 1980. It was the fifth year in a row that the number of school librarians declined, a 6% drop from the previous year. What makes the situation worse is that the number of Oregon schools and Oregon students is growing. The number of schools in 2006-07 grew to 1,302 and the number of students increased by about 1% to nearly 563,000. In 1980 there was one school librarian for every 547 students in Oregon public schools. Last year there was one librarian for every 1,447 students.
HORNER EXCHANGE LIBRARIANS IN CHINA
Three Oregon librarians left for China in October for this year's Horner Library Staff Exchange. You can read about their experiences on their blog. Teresa Landers, Gretta Siegel and Rosalind Wang are spending three weeks visiting libraries, meeting with colleagues and making presentations in Oregon's sister province of Fujian. Earlier this year, four librarians from Fujian spent three weeks in Oregon. The Horner Library Staff Exchange project is sponsored by the Oregon State Library and the Fujian Provincial Library. It is being managed this year by the International Relations Roundtable of the Oregon Library Association. The next exchange will take place in 2010.

OREGON LIBRARIANS SELECTED AS EMERGING LEADERS
Laurie Bridges from Oregon State University Library and Allinee Flanery from Mt. Hood Community College have been selected to participate in the American Library Association's Emerging Leader program in 2008. The Emerging Leader program will enable 124 librarians from across the country to participate in problem-solving workgroups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. The 2008 program kicks off with a daylong session during the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia in January. Afterward, it will grow and develop in an online environment for six months and culminate at the 2008 Annual Conference in Anaheim, in June. Participants commit to taking part in all aspects of the program and will have an opportunity to serve on an ALA division, chapter or round table committee, task force or work group upon completion of the program.


P.S. (From the State Librarian)

This year the Legislature passed two bills that all libraries need to be aware of that deal with protecting the privacy of library users. SB 583, called the Oregon Identity Theft Protection Act, is a wide-ranging bill that all public agencies and private businesses must comply with by the first of next year. SB 950, introduced on behalf of the Oregon Library Association, deals with the specific issue of protecting library patron email addresses from disclosure under the public records law.
The provision of SB 583 that will affect libraries is the requirement that all "personal identifying information" must be safeguarded by the time this part of the law goes into effect on January 1, 2008. This includes a person's name in combination with a Social Security number, a driver's license number or Oregon identification card number, or credit or debit card numbers. The safeguards must be in place for library employees and for library users. If this kind of information is accidentally disclosed, affected persons must be notified. There is some good information about SB 583 on the website of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, including information about what a library should do to be in compliance with the law by the January 1st deadline. 
SB 950 also requires action by libraries (public, public academic, public school) to adopt policies before the law goes into effect on January 1st. The Oregon Library Association drafted and worked hard to pass this bill after learning of a case in Florida where a lobbyist was able to force a public library to disclose all of the email addresses of library users under that state's public records law. To help prevent this from happening in Oregon, SB 950 adds library user email addresses to exemptions that already exist for library circulation records and library users' mailing addresses and phone numbers. However, the Oregon Attorney General's office recommends that libraries adopt their own policies if they want to prohibit the disclosure of patron information.
In a letter of advice to the State Library in 1995, the Attorney General's office stated that "none of the Public Records Law exemptions prohibit disclosure . instead, the exemptions give the public body discretion not to disclose specifically identified records." The letter goes on to recommend that public libraries adopt policies that clearly "define the circumstances in which . records can be disclosed."
If your library has policies about disclosure of patron information, you may need to amend them prior to January 1st, and if you haven't adopted any policies about this, now would be a good time to do so. - Jim Scheppke



Contacts at the Oregon State Library

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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Robin Speer
Oregon State Library
phone: 503-378-2464, fax: 503-585-8059
robin.d.speer at state.or.us
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