OLA Legislative Committee Notes
Monday, March 21, 2016 • 10 AM to 12 noon
Oregon State Library Room 202

Attending: Nan Heim, Jane Corry, Janet Webster, Sue Ludington, Cathryn Bowie, Ruth Murray, MaryKay Dahlgreen

Phone: Korie Buerkle, Buzzy Nielsen, Elsa Loftis, Abigail Elder

  1. Review of Previous Action Items (Janet)
  • Janet and Jane submitted a letter in support of Min Yasui Day for OLA that described the Oregon Reads program that featured Stubborn Twig. The Hood River Library board signed on to the ACLU letter supporting the bill. THe bill passed. Buzzy will find out if there will be kick-off for the first celebration.
  • Jane and Korie will go through the stack of legislative day booksright after the May 16th committee meeting. Bring your donated books to the May meeting.
  1. Lobbyist Report(Nan)
  2. The summer learning bill died this session and we assume that the supporting groups will try again next year. We are undecided if we would support or remain neutral as it was very focused on the Department of Education and did not address our issues with school libraries. We were disappointed that OLA was not called out as a participant. In the short session, several bills sponsored by legislators did not get approved or move – a sign of the times.
  3. In 2017, legislature is anticipating a fiscal crisis unless an initiative to change the corporate tax passes in November. That initiative would increase corporate tax on companies with sales over $25 million and the funds are targeted to K though we education. It’s divisive between labor and business.
  4. Buzzy mentioned that the state is anticipating at least a 20% increase in PERS contributions. This will have an impact on school budgets as well as some libraries and other governmental institutions. Legislative action on PERS is probably not going to happen given the legal rulings.
  5. Nan updated us on who has decided not to run for re-election. Fourteen house members did not file, fewer than usual. This group includes Peter Buckley who has been a great library champion. Three senators are retiring including Whitset from Klamath Falls.
  6. Buzzy has heard there is interest in changing the law so that property tax value would be re-set when a house is sold; he will check with Special Districts and see if they know anything. This would help all as it would increase the amount of taxes collected in most communities.
  7. We brainstormed on possible activities for the 2017 Legislative Session. Nan advised us to start early and pursue legislative concepts through the interim committees. Their meeting dates are May 23-25, Sept 21-23, and Jan 12-14.
  8. What if we tried to create a Ready to Read program for schools? It probably would be a competitive grant. We might consider limiting it to a specific grade levels and smaller/rural schools. We could also think about tying the grant to the Continuous Improvement Plans generated by a district – a bit of a carrot for planning for quality school library programs. Ruth is going to discuss with the OASL board for ideas, concerns, feedback.
  9. Sue has been monitoring the situation with the Multnomah County Law Library; it sounds like the entire MCLL collection will not be moved into the new courthouse when it is completed in 2020. The MCLL has an important historical collection of statewide significance that needs to be properly preserved and made accessible. Janet suggested that there might be a brokering role for OLA: in addition, this might be a good digitization project if funding could be identified. We will continue to monitor the situation to see if we have a role to play.
  1. Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) for Schools
  2. The third group of school districts will be writing their CIPs, due in June 2016. This will complete the development of CIPs. We are not clear if districts will be updating them every three years on the current rotation. Janet and Nan tried to find examples of existing CIPs and could not find any on the ODE web site or selected school districts. Janet and Ruth will ask Jennifer Mauer about this.
  3. In 2014, OLA and OASL wrote the school superintendents who were developing CIPs to encourage them to address school libraries. We are not clear if these had any results. We could do this again, but need to start now. Jennifer may have an idea.
  4. Schools have added librarians, mostly in the Portland Public School District. Beaverton plans to add 15 next year..
  5. Ruth is on a state DOE committee on CIPs; however, the committee that hasn’t met since September.
  6. Jane, Janet and Ruth will explore putting together a program on advocacy for the fall OASL conference. Ruth has contacts. It’s in Bend in October. Program proposals are due April 22.
  1. #GoOpen Initiative
  2. The press release from ODE did not give much detail on the program. Beaverton School District is listed as a GoOpen school; Abigail will talk with BSD about how they are incoporating open educational resources. It is a possible opportunity to highlight that all libraries provide access to excellent resources.
  3. Academic librarians have been moving toward this for a long time. OSU has a grant to support faculty writing open curriculum. (Update: Faye Chadwell at OSU had heard nothing about this initiative.)
  1. State Law Librarian Report
  2. Last Friday, Cathryn and Sueprovided train-the-trainer sessions at theTillamookPublic Library that was very well received. A local attorney attended one of the sessions, which really added to the conversation. They spent three hours and covered the databases, Nolo and Fastcase, as well as getting into the issue of providing access to legal resources at the public library. They learned much about how to structure future workshops and plan on developing webinars.
  3. Cathryn and Sue will be part of a presentation on Nolo and Fastcase at the OLA conference. They might be able to generate interest in more train-the-trainer workshops as a result of this presentation.
  4. Sue is working with others nationally on a new guide about“access to justice”, a movement advocating equal and efficientaccess to the civil justice systems for unrepresented litigants. She’s writing the piece on ways that public law libraries provide training for public libraries. She’ll send out the link to the resource to Libs-Or.
  1. State Librarian Report
  2. State budget outlook message was very mixed, but she has been told to anticipate a flat budget. The State Library budget is due August 1. For programs using general funds, MaryKay will have to submit a reduction plan. This affects mostly Talking Books and Ready to Read. The board will begin discussion on policy options at the next board meeting April 20th in Bend. She is considering two policy option packages:
  3. She would like to move the State Library’s IT responsibilities tostate IT center. This would affect internal library operations. The statewide databases and AnswerLand would not be affected. This is budget neutral.
  4. MaryKay still wants to modify Ready to Read to raise the age to 17 regardless of the funding level.She would also expand allowed programs to include after school. Korie reports that many youth services librarians support this; however, legislators will be reluctant to support a policy change if funds are reduced. The Summer Reading bill had a good hearing but was just not a legislative priority this past session.
  5. The OSL Board is slowing changing over to its new membership as its current member terms expire. A state employee has been appointed. OLA may be consulted as early as June for possible nominees.
  6. The draft administrative rules will be out in April with a hearing scheduled for June 10th.
  7. MaryKay spoke with the head of the Douglas County Library District PAC this morning. The commissioners are supportive of the plan as are 7 of the 12 cities. Roseburg remains a stumbling block. MaryKay encouraged them. Ruth has a school libraries in the county who would be good advocate.
  1. National Library Legislative Day
  • Ruth, Nan, Elsa, MaryKay and Sara Charlton are registered.
  • The State Library is preparing a hand-out for the Congressional delegation that outlines the different ways that public libraries in Oregon are funded but it’s hard to summarize in a one-page document.

Future Meetings:May 16

Outstanding Action Items:

  • Buzzy will check with SDAO regarding the property tax initiatives.
  • Sue will send some background about the MCLL to the rest of the committee.
  • Ruth and Janet will flesh out the School Ready to Read idea.
  • Jane and Janet will put together a conference proposal for the OASL conference.
  • Abigail will find out more about GoOpen initiative with Beaverton School District.
  • Nathan, Sue and Janet will continue to work on the Engage site.
  • Abigail and Janet will review the Legislative Agenda for additions and edits.
  • Jane and Korie to weed legislative day gift books, and solicit more for future events
  • Janet will work with Kate on writing a report using the latest public library statistics.