STATE
LIBRARY BOARD WILL PURSUE MORE COST SHARING FOR L-NET
At their December 5th meeting in Hillsboro, the State Library Board voted to have the staff draft an Administrative Rule that would require most libraries participating in the Statewide Database Licensing Program to contribute to the cost of the L-net e-reference service. Since 2004, L-net has been supported through an LSTA grant to the Multnomah County Library and in-kind contributions from cooperating libraries that staff the service. The plan that the Board will pursue calls for public and academic libraries to contribute a total of $30,000 to support the service in 2009-10, a figure that would increase by $10,000 in each of the following two fiscal years. The cost would be allocated in much the same way as the cost of the statewide database license. Small public and academic libraries that are fully subsidized for databases would be exempt from paying for L-net. The Board also directed the staff to survey public and academic libraries to assess support for the plan. The Administrative Rule will be sent out to libraries in January, and the Board will hold a public hearing on the Rule at their February 20th meeting at the State Library in Salem.
BOARD DISCUSSES NEW STRATEGIES TO BRING SERVICE TO THE UNSERVED
May Garland and Linda Ziedrich, the
two leaders of the Linn Library League, shared their struggle over the past
five years to bring public library service to over 30,000 citizens of Linn County
who have no service at the December 5th Board meeting. To date their efforts
have been blocked by a lack of support from elected county and city officials
in Linn County. They called for greater staff support from the State Library
for citizen efforts like theirs. The Board will continue to discuss new strategies
to address the problem of Oregonians without public library service, currently
9% of the state population, at future meetings. In other business the Board
adopted a new long range plan for Talking Book and Braille Services. They also
granted three appeals of Ready to Read Grants that were submitted late and elected
new members to the Talking Book and Braille Services Advisory Council and the
Library Services and Technology Act Advisory Council.
BOARD ELECTS NEW ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBERS
At their December 5th Board meeting
in Hillsboro, the Oregon State Library Board elected four new representatives
to the LSTA Advisory Council. The new Council members will serve a three-year
term from January 2009 – December 2011. The new Council members are:
Ed Sale, Beaverton, representing Disadvantaged Persons. Mr. Sale is a Community
Relations Officer with the Portland Field Office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS).
Anne Billeter, Medford, representing Library Users. Ms. Billeter is a retired
librarian.
Buzzy Nielsen, North Bend, representing Public Libraries. Mr. Nielsen is the
Assistant Director of the North Bend Public Library.
Karen Hill, Cornelius, representing Public Libraries. Ms. Hill is the Director
of the Cornelius Public Library.
READY TO READ GRANTS MAILED IN DECEMBER
The Ready to Read Grants were mailed
to public library directors in December. Included in this mailing was a list
of libraries receiving grants this year, and descriptions of the projects they
plan to implement with their Ready to Read Grant in 2008-09. 2008-2009 is the
second Ready to Read Grant cycle that benefited from the increased grant amounts
and minimum grants of $1,000. The State Library is pleased to report that 15%
of libraries receiving Ready to Read Grants in 2007-2008 added one or more best
practices to their library services for children. We encourage libraries to
add best practices which not only benefit children and teens’ literacy
development, but also show the Legislature the impact of the increase in Ready
to Read Grant funding.
OREGON READS 2009 LAUNCHES IN JANUARY
Oregon Reads, sponsored by the Oregon
Library Association, is the first statewide community reading program ever held
in Oregon. All Oregonians will be able to participate whether or not their library
has any events planned by reading the books and participating in online book
discussions on the Oregon Reads website.
A grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation provided copies of
the feature title, Stubborn Twig by Lauren Kessler, to libraries serving
30,000 people or fewer (83% of libraries). A grant from The Starseed Foundation
provided one copy each of the juvenile titles, Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer
Wolff and Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson, to each public library,
branch, and bookmobile. The Oregon Reads 2009 website will have book discussions,
podcasts of events, and a statewide events calendar. All public libraries received
a publicity packet with one Oregon Reads poster to display, 100 bookmarks to
distribute, and buttons for staff to wear. The Oregon Reads 2009 kick-off event
is on January 15th at Portland State University. Programs and events will be
concentrated from January through April, but many Oregon Reads events will take
place throughout the year as libraries coordinate with their local community
reads program or local sesquicentennial celebrations.
OREGON PUBLIC LIBRARIES
MAINTAIN HIGH NATIONAL RANKINGS
In the latest national ranking of
public library services by state, released in December by the Institute of Museum
and Library Services, Oregon continues to rank highly in most performance categories.
The rankings are based on data for fiscal year 2006. Oregon maintained its second
place ranking for public library circulation per capita, second only to Ohio.
Oregon public libraries checked out 15.03 books and other library materials
per capita, while Ohio checked out 15.54 materials per capita. The average for
the U.S. is only 7.28 per capita. Oregon also maintained its second place ranking
for resource sharing. Oregon public libraries received 813 interlibrary loans
per 1,000 population served. Number one ranked Wisconsin public libraries received
1,109 per thousand. Oregon also ranked in the top 10 in library visits per capita.
However, Oregon public libraries ranked only 33rd in reference transactions
per capita. While Oregon public libraries are among the top-performing in the
country, their funding and staffing is closer to average. Oregon public libraries
ranked 12th in total operating revenue and 25th in staffing. Oregon public libraries
rank 27th in print materials per capita and only 34th in Internet computers
per capita. The rankings are available in a downloadable
report from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
NEW OREGON LIBRARY
HISTORY BOOK AVAILABLE
A new book published by the Corvallis-Benton
County Library Foundation provides a history not only of the public library
in Corvallis, but of Oregon public libraries. The Best Gift: the History
of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library by Thomas C. McClintock begins
with a chapter on the history of libraries and follows with several chapters
that tell the history of libraries in Oregon. McClintock is retired from the
history faculty at Oregon State University, where he taught for 30 years, and
he has done years of research on Oregon libraries. This is the only in-print
book that recounts the history of Oregon libraries, and as such it should be
considered for all public and academic libraries collections. To purchase a
copy, send $25 plus $3 shipping to the Corvallis-Benton County Library Foundation,
645 NW Monroe Ave., Corvallis, 97330.
In November a settlement of the lawsuit between Google and two associations representing authors was announced. Google’s partnership with a number of research libraries to scan millions of library books triggered the lawsuit, which the associations alleged was a violation of their rights under U.S. copyright law. The settlement still has to be approved by a Federal judge, but if it is approved Google will be allowed to expand Google Book Search dramatically into what Library Journal Hotline called “the web’s largest commercial book venture.” Instead of just being able to serve up snippets of books, magazines and newspapers, Google will be able to sell access to entire works to individuals, and on a subscription basis to libraries. Public and academic libraries will get to access the database for free on one computer per building, but just for viewing.
So who are the winners and who are the losers if the settlement is approved? Based on my reading of a number of articles and opinion pieces that have appeared in the blogosphere and elsewhere in the past couple of months, here’s what I think:
WINNERS
Google: They are spending $125 million to settle the suit (not a lot
of money to them) and in return get to start up what will probably turn out
to be a very profitable new line of business.
Descendents of Famous Dead Authors: They will eventually get royalty
checks for out-of-print books they might have never gotten, without this settlement.
LOSERS
Research Libraries: The major research libraries that let Google scan
their books are getting relatively little
in return.They must join the settlement or face continued liability from
the author associations, and if they join, their ability to freely use the books
from their collections that have been scanned is severely limited.
Other Libraries: Free views of out-of-print books on one computer in
a library will not significantly meet the needs of library users; it will only
serve to create demand for what Google wants to sell to libraries and individuals.
Amazon, Yahoo and Microsoft: There is a lot of concern,
even among the supporters of the settlement, that Google will have a monopoly
on “long tail” e-books, magazines, and newspapers.
Fair Use: Had this case gone to trial it might have resolved some important
issues about fair use that
could have benefited libraries.
U.S. Congress: This might never have happened if the Congress had heeded
the many calls for reform of U.S. copyright law, such as the “orphan works”
legislation that ALA
has been pushing for several years.
Our Common Culture: Think how much richer our culture would be if we
had just maintained the original Copyright
Act of 1790 that allowed for books to be in copyright for 28 years and then
go into the public domain. – Jim Scheppke
Technical Assistance: 503-932-1004.
Library Development: 503-378-2525, MaryKay
Dahlgreen, Mary Mayberry,
Darci Hanning, Ann
Reed, Jennifer
Maurer, Katie Anderson.
Talking Book and Braille Services: 503-378-5389, Susan
Westin.
Government Research and Electronic Services: 503-378-5030, Robert
Hulshof-Schmidt.
State Librarian: 503-378-4367, Jim
Scheppke.
LTLO Editor: 503-378-2464, April
Baker
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: April Baker
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 April Baker, or mailed to LTLO, Oregon State Library, 250 Winter St. NE, Salem, Oregon 97301-3950.
To unsubscribe from libs-or, either send an 'unsubscribe' message to libs-or-request@listsmart.osl.state.or.us, or visit the website: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/libs-or/. All materials may be reprinted or distributed freely.