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<H1><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><A name=Top></A>Letter To
Libraries Online</FONT></H1>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">An Electronic Newsletter from
the Oregon State Library.......Volume 18, Issue 9, September
2008</FONT></P></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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<DIV align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><B><A
name=Board></A>Library Board News</B></FONT></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">STATE LIBRARY BOARD
WILL AWARD LSTA GRANTS IN OCTOBER</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">At their next meeting on October
17th in Salem, the State Library Board of Trustees will hear recommendations
from the LSTA Advisory Council about awarding competitive LSTA grants for FFY
2009. The Board will be considering six applications for grant projects that are
continuing and seven new grant projects. The total of all the projects being
considered will be over $800,000. Among the projects that will be considered are
new projects to test and implement an open source integrated library system in
Eastern Oregon, and a project to begin to digitize all of Oregon’s historic
newspapers that are in the public domain. Also at the October meeting, the Board
will hear recommendations from the Talking Book and Braille Services Advisory
Council about how to proceed to expedite the transition from cassette talking
books to digital talking books. The Board has already decided to use TBABS
Endowment funds to purchase players, if the number of players that we expect
receive from the Library of Congress is inadequate. However, recently an House
appropriations subcommittee in the Congress voted to nearly triple the funding
for the digital talking book program in FFY 2009, so the Board must now
determine if it is wise to spend endowment funds on players and related
equipment, or wait to see if the significant funding increase from the Congress
will result in TBABS customers not having to wait months or years to trade in
their cassette players. The meeting will take place at the State Library,
beginning at 9:30 a.m. on October 17th.</FONT></P>
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<DIV align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><B><A
name=OSLNews></A>State Library News</B></FONT></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">READING FOR HEALTHY
FAMILIES BEGINS THIS FALL</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The Oregon State Library and the
Oregon Commission on Children and Families are excited to announce Reading for
Healthy Families Oregon: Building Communities of Learning (RFHF), an early
literacy and community engagement effort. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Public library staff who work with
children can apply to attend two separate two-day RFHF training sessions and
receive training in the evidence-based Every Child Ready to Read @ your
library®, outreach to high-risk families, and special topics such as working
with English language learners, conducting early literacy story times, and
working with people with special needs.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">After the training, each
participating children’s library staff will have the knowledge, skills, and
materials to provide early literacy education, support, and resources to at
least 15 families over the course of a year. And, their library will be able to
report this on their Public Library Statistics as “early literacy training”, one
of the three library youth services best practices identified by the Statewide
Early Literacy Initiative. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">RFHF will foster partnerships
between public libraries and Healthy Start programs in their counties that will
help children’s library staff develop or expand library outreach services to
high-risk families in their communities.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">To learn more about the many
benefits RFHF can bring to Oregon Communities, go to the RFHF website: <A
href="http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/LD/youthsvcs/rfhf.home.page.shtml">http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/LD/youthsvcs/rfhf.home.page.shtml</A></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you have any questions please
contact: Joann Contini, RFHF Project Coordinator at 503-761-2506 or <A
href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Robin/My%20Documents/INTRANET/Library/joanncontini@comcast.net">joanncontini@comcast.net</A>.
<BR><BR><BR></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">2009 LETTERS ABOUT
LITERATURE CONTEST BEGINS</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Letter About Literature is a
national reading and writing promotion program for readers in grades 4 through
12, sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in
partnership with Target. To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author,
explaining how his or her work changed their view of the world or themselves.
Last year one of the six national Letters About Literature winners was from
Oregon. The winner received a $500 Target GiftCard, and Target Stores made a
$10,000 donation in the winner’s name to the library at Cal Young Middle School
in Eugene. To obtain the guidelines and required entry form download it from <A
href="http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/LD/youthsvcs/aboutlit.shtml">Letters About
Literature</A>. The deadline for entries is December 6, 2008. </FONT></P>
<P> </P>
<P align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">2008 ANNUAL REPORT OF
THE OREGON INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM CLEARINGHOUSE COMING SOON</FONT></P>
<P align=left><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The <I>2008 Annual
Report</I> will be available soon on <A
href="http://oregon.gov/OSL/LD/intellectual.shtml">Oregon Intellectual Freedom
Clearinghouse</A>. The report is a compendium of 34 challenges to library
material in three school libraries and seven public libraries between July 1,
2007 and June 30, 2008. More than twice as many challenges were reported this
year than in 2007, and 13 more than in 2006. This increase may be due to joint
efforts by OICF and the Intellectual Freedom Committees of the Oregon Library
Association and Oregon Association of School Libraries to educate library staff
about reporting challenges. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The Oregon Intellectual Freedom
Clearinghouse (OIFC) collects reports about formal, written challenges to
library material from all types of Oregon libraries. The information is reported
to OIFC by Oregon libraries on a voluntarily basis. OIFC compiles the reports
from libraries into an annual report each year; all previous reports are now
available online at <A href="http://oregon.gov/OSL/LD/intellectual.shtml">Oregon
Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse</A>.</FONT><BR><BR></P>
<P align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><BR>UNABRIDGED
RECIEVES DIGITAL PIONEER AWARD</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Digipalooza ’08, the library
download service user conference, sponsored by OverDrive, was held in Cleveland
Ohio in July. Honored at that event was the Unabridged downloadable audio book
service provided by Talking Book and Braille Services, in cooperation with
regional talking book libraries in several other states. Digital Pioneer Awards,
or “Digies” were awarded to leading libraries demonstrating excellence in the
expansion and promotion of their digital download websites. Unabridged was one
of 13 honorees from hundreds of public libraries and consortia that offer
OverDrive supplied download eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video. TBABS' patrons
can sign up for Unabridged any time—all they need is a computer and high speed
internet access. Call TBABS for details!<BR></FONT></P>
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<DIV align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><B><A
name=OtherNews></A>Other Library News</B></FONT></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">OREGON HERITAGE
COMMISSION VOTES TO SUPPORT THE OREGON DIGITAL NEWSPAPER PROJECT</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">At their meeting on August 4th, the
Oregon Heritage Commission, a division of the Oregon Parks and Recreation
Department, voted to provide $145,000 of Oregon Cultural Trust funds to help
with start-up costs for the Oregon Digital Newspaper Project at the University
of Oregon Libraries. The funds would match nearly $80,000 that is being
requested in an LSTA grant application to the State Library. It is hoped that
both funding partners would be able to provide two years of funding to get the
project off the ground. The project was the result of an Oregon Newspaper
Digitization Summit meeting that the State Librarian hosted in December, 2007.
The meeting brought together librarians from research libraries around the
state, representatives of heritage organizations, and the Oregon Newspaper
Publishers Association. UO Libraries is leading the project because of their
longstanding leadership in microfilming and archiving Oregon’s historic
newspapers. The project plan envisions that at the end of the two-year start-up
phase, a representative sample of historic Oregon newspapers will be available
for viewing on the web, and that this will lead to more Oregon communities
raising the funds to have their historic newspapers digitized. This is the
funding model that has led to the creation of comprehensive historic newspaper
digitization projects in both <A
href="http://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/">Colorado</A> and <A
href="http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews">Utah</A>.</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><BR><BR>LANE LIBRARY
DISTRICT SPONSORS FARMERS MARKET</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">On June 24th the Lane Library
District in Creswell sponsored a farmer’s market in a area behind the library.
According to an article in the <I>Creswell Chronicle</I>, the farmer’s market
had 12 vendors and drew about 200 people from the community on opening day. The
Library set a single day attendance record with 419 people visiting the Library.
The <I>Chronicle</I> reported that five more vendors have signed up for the
market. It will be open every Tuesday from 4-7 p.m. throughout the
summer.</FONT></P>
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<DIV align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><A
name=PS></A><B>P.S. (From the State
Librarian)</B></FONT></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Is it possible that some “Oregon
Moms” could achieve the same results for our school libraries that the three
“Washington Moms” achieved in Washington earlier this year? You might have read
about the three moms from Spokane who took on the Washington legislature to get
funding for a teacher-librarian and an adequate library materials budget in
every school. <A
href="http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6540623.html?q=spokane%2Bmom">They
succeeded</A> in getting an appropriation of $4 million – about a third of what
they asked for, but a start. They plan to be back when the new legislature
convenes next year.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nancy Sullivan, a high school
librarian in the Portland Public Schools and an Oregon Association of School
Libraries Board member, has taken it upon herself to try to replicate the
Washington Moms success in Oregon. She has already found a couple of Oregon moms
and has created an organization and a <A
href="http://fundourfutureoregon.org/">website</A> modeled on Washington’s.
She’s getting advice from the Washington Moms and recently presented her plans
to a joint meeting of the Boards of OASL and OLA. Both organizations seem
interested in helping, if Nancy and her moms can manage to get a bill introduced
in the Oregon legislature next year. Nancy reported that several legislators
have shown interest, but that she has yet to locate a legislator to be a
champion and to sponsor a bill.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Getting the Oregon legislature to
appropriate funds specifically for school libraries will be a harder task here
than in Washington. For a long time the Oregon legislature has avoided funding
specific activities or programs in Oregon’s K-12 schools, adhering to a firm
policy of “local control.” They have gone along with the strong pressure they
typically get from the school boards and school administrators to appropriate as
much money as possible to fund the formula allocations to Oregon’s school
districts, but to refrain from directing them how to spend it. It took two
legislative sessions and very strong support from the President of the Oregon
Senate to appropriate a modest amount of money for grants to hire more PE
specialists (seen as a response to the childhood obesity problem) in the 2007
session.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There is nothing to lose by
attempting a Washington Moms strategy in Oregon. I have urged the OASL to help
Nancy by developing a succinct case statement that presents the research showing
how school libraries can really make a difference in reading achievement, and
that also describes the dismal state of Oregon’s school libraries. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The State Board of Education <A
href="http://www.ode.state.or.us/news/releases/default.aspx?yr=2008&kw=&rid=645">recently
voted to require</A> that Oregon students be able to demonstrate reading
proficiency in order to graduate from high school, beginning in 2012. One of the
best ways to enable all our students to meet this new requirement would be to
invest in our school libraries, particularly at the elementary level, where our
school libraries have taken the hardest hit. Beginning to educate our
legislators about this would be worth the effort, even if funding is impossible
to achieve in 2009. – Jim Scheppke</FONT><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></P>
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<DIV align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><B><A
name=Contacts></A>Contacts at the Oregon State
Library</B></FONT></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Technical Assistance:
503-932-1004.<BR><BR>Library Development: 503-378-2525, <A
href="mailto:marykay.dahlgreen@state.or.us">MaryKay Dahlgreen</A>, <A
href="mailto:mary.l.mayberry@state.or.us">Mary Mayberry</A>, <A
href="mailto:darci.hanning@state.or.us">Darci Hanning</A>, <A
href="mailto:ann.reed@state.or.us">Ann Reed</A>, <A
href="mailto:patty.sorensen@state.or.us">Patty Sorensen</A>, <A
href="mailto:katie.anderson@state.or.us">Katie Anderson</A>.<BR><BR>Talking Book
and Braille Services: 503-378-5389, <A
href="mailto:susan.b.westin@state.or.us">Susan Westin</A>.<BR><BR>Government
Research and Electronic Services: 503-378-5030, <A
href="mailto:robert.hulshof-schmidt@state.or.us">Robert
Hulshof-Schmidt</A>.<BR><BR>State Librarian: 503-378-4367, <A
href="mailto:jim.b.scheppke@state.or.us">Jim Scheppke</A>.<BR><BR>LTLO Editor:
503-378-2464, <A href="mailto:april.m.baker@state.or.us">April
Baker</A>.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><I>Letter to Libraries Online</I>
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: <A href="mailto:april.m.baker@state.or.us">April Baker</A>.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><I>Letter to Libraries Online</I>
is available free of charge and is available only in electronic form on the
publications page at the Oregon State Library's homepage: <A
href="http://www.oregon.gov/OSL">http://www.oregon.gov/OSL</A>. 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 <A
href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Robin/My%20Documents/INTRANET/Library/april.m.baker@state.or.us">April
Baker</A>, or mailed to LTLO, Oregon State Library, 250 Winter St. NE, Salem,
Oregon 97301-3950.</FONT></P>
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