State agencies are charged an assessment based on their use of State Library services. The assessment supports all the library’s services to state government agencies and related administrative costs. Other services of the library, including the Talking Book and Braille Library and the Library Support and Development Services, are not funded by the assessment. For the specific assessment data for the current biennium, please review the AY29 Assessment FAQ.
Why does the State Library have an assessment?
In 1993, the Oregon Legislature created the State Library assessment in an effort to reduce the Library’s reliance on General Funds.
How is the library assessment allocated to agencies?
By statute (ORS 357.203), the State Library assesses state agencies for services provided every two years. This cost is based on both agency use and number of staff.
- The Department of Administrative Services provides a listing of state agencies and their FTE staff count. This information is used to calculate two-thirds of the assessment cost.
- Agency usage of the State Library is calculated from recorded transactions collected during the 2023- 2025 biennium. This accounts for one-third of the overall cost.
Agency use is also weighted to take the amount of effort involved with the various types of services provided. State Library staff have determined the weighting factors, based on estimates of the relative labor, systems support, resource materials, and processing steps required for the delivery of individual types of transactions, focusing on the staff time and effort cost for delivering the respective services.
For the 2027-29 biennium assessment, the following weighting factors were used:
| Item | Effortt/Cost Index | Calculaton Basis |
| Patron services: Reference and consulting | 5 | Per contact, 0-5 min. |
| 30 | Per contact, 6-30 min. |
| 60 | Per contact, 31-60 min. |
| 90 | Per contact, >60 min. |
| Interlibrary loan/Document Delivery (all formats) | 45 | Per item |
| Government Information and Library Services patron registration | 5 | Per individual registration |
| Instruction and Outreach: number of patrons from each agency, per session | 60 | Per participant |
- Patron Services - State Library staff record and compile statistics on all reference and consulting transactions as they occur. The transactions are individually recorded by state agency and computed by the index/scale in the table above. The statistics are totaled and reported monthly, quarterly, and annually.
- Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery - Transactions are recorded for each item processed and submitted in the monthly, quarterly, and annual statistics.
- Government Information and Library Services patron registration - Registrations are recorded as they occur and compiled for annual statistical reporting.
- Instruction/Outreach - The number of patrons from each agency are counted for each instructional session and the usage calculation is based on average class/presentation time of 60 minutes.
What is the total of the assessment?
For the current amount of assessments to state agencies for the biennium, please review the AY29 Assessment FAQ.
What does the assessment support?
The assessment supports the entire budget of the Government Information and Library Services division of the State Library and a portion of the Operations division budget, including IT Services and personal services costs. No assessment funds are spent on Library Support and Development or Talking Book and Braille Library Services.
What services are provided to agencies for their assessment payment?
Services include:
- Access to the State Library of Oregon, Government Information and Library Services website.
- Reference and research support from professional librarians
- Embedded librarians that personally work with individual agencies
- General and specialized library instruction to state agency employees
- Document delivery from the library collection or other libraries via interlibrary loan (ILL)
- Cataloging, preservation efforts and providing access to state agency publications in print and digital formats, as required by
- Distribution of state agency publications to depository libraries
- State Library eClips daily news briefing service
How many Library staff provide these services?
The Government Information and Library Services division includes 14 FTE staff. The Operations division includes 7.68 FTE staff. For the current biennium’s staffing numbers please review the AY29 Assessment FAQ.
Who should I contact if I have questions about the State Library assessment?
Contact:
Elke Bruton, Program Manager
Elke.Bruton@slo.oregon.gov
971-375-5309