OLA Legislative Committee
Monday, November 16, 2015 • 10 AM to 12 noon
Oregon State Library Room 202

Present:

Janet Webster, Abigail Elder, Sue Ludington, Nate Pedersen, Elsa Loftis, MaryKayDahlgreen, Cathryn Bowie, Nan Heim, John Schoppert, Diedre Conkling, Carol Dinges, Kate Lasky, Rachel Bridgewater, Jane Corry

Guests: Katie Anderson, Beth Unverzagt, Bethany Thramer

  1. Lobbyist Report(Nan)

The new Senate Majority Leader is Ginny Burdick, a past OLA Legislator of the Year.

The Legislature is currentlyholding Committee Days (week of November 16th) so lots of legislators are in town.

Nan checked on the status of the Accelerated Learning issue and states that it has been tabled for now. The focus is on funding and how to better distribute the funds between high schools and community colleges. She plans on meeting with Haas, the lead proponent last year, to reiterate OLA’s concern about access to appropriate library resources and expertise.

  1. State Librarian Report (MaryKay)

ALA Legislative Days will be May 2 and 3. Registration will be handled by the State Library for our contingency. Elsa

will be going as the OLA vice president. John will check with the Academic Division to see if there is funding for him to travel to DC. We have funds to support a committee member as well.

COSLA (the state librarians organization) and ALA sent a joint letter to Congress in support of LSTA funding. MaryKay will send a copy to us and Jane will recast and forward to our congressional contacts.

The Irrigon Public Library has reopened in its new building.

The Oregon Folklife Network will be presenting its annual awards in the State Library Reference Room. It’s the beginning of encouraging more usage of the physical space.

Kate asked about the transition to the newState Library board and governance structure. The current board remains in place with the addition of the representatives from the Department of Education and the Oregon Commission for the Blind. There is a position open now and MaryKay is working to get a state agency person to fill it. The new Administrative Rules have been delayed as the current board cannot pass them. They will pass on temporary rules at the January board meeting. Then the process of public hearings and vetting begins. The main issues are: review of requests for purchases/licensing of resources, certification of state agency libraries, and monitoring the terms of service of resources so they are restricted to state agency people. The rule of the Reference Coordinating Council is crucial and is being defined.

  1. State Law Librarian Report(Cathryn)

FastCase and NOLO, resources licensed for statewide use by the State Law Library, are proving very popular. Cathryn and Sue are working on a training program and their conference proposal has been accepted. They also plan at least one training session prior to the conference.

Cathryn and Sue are also working on best practices for public libraries and legal information. They met with Janet to plan an approach and agreed to use the national standards for county law libraries as a framework. The most important areas for best practices are staffing (training, experiences, ongoing professional development), reference provision and when to refer, hours, collections and budget. They plan to have something to share by the end of the year.

  1. State Surveillance of Oregon’s #blacklivesmatter movement (Diedre/Jane)

Turner Masland started the conversation on Libs-Or when it was revealed that Oregon’s Department of Justice was monitoring certain twitter accounts. The IF Committee requested a statement from the OLA President stating that OLA does not condone surveillance of individuals or organizations as it is a violation of free speech. Diedre reminded us that the Legislative Agenda reviewed periodical by this committee and adopted by the board provides the means to respond in a timely manner without waiting for board or membership approval. We need to review the agenda as it’s been a few years, especially in light of social media and the digital environment. Abigail and Janet will do this. In the meantime, we’ll draft a letter for Jane to send to DOJ and copy the Oregon ACLU.

  1. Migration from Capwiz to Engage (Nathan)

Nate, Sue and Janet have been exploring the new software. Nate will send out a report to the committee with a request for feedback on which issues to highlight.

  1. Digital Privacy Policy Statement (Diedre and Rachel)

This question arose when Senator Wyden’s office requested a statement from OLA in regards to the CISA legislation. It is not covered in OLA’s Legislative Agenda so Diedre and Rachel are drafting a brief policy for the OLA Board to consider.

  1. State of Public Libraries Report (Janet and Kate)

We are working on the report with a focus on the six counties most affected by the O&C/federal timber funds. We are using the public library statistics to compare library services across the six counties as a way to describe the challenges of these primarily rural counties as well as the variety of approaches to management, governance and funding.

  1. Oregon ASK Presentation and Discussion (Beth Unverzagt and Bethany Thramer)

Beth gave a brief history and overview of Oregon ASK, a coalition of public and private entities that focus on out-of-school time (after school and summers). Its proposed legislation in the 2015 session failed as there was a feeling among the legislators that there should be more coordination between Oregon ASK and the Department of Education’s planning.

Beth is working with Representative Smith-Warner on legislation for the 2016 short session. There are two approaches:

  • A request for $500,000 for the Department of Education to continue out-of-school programming that adheres to certain best practices.
  • A request for a working group to develop the best practices and approach to coordinated out-of-school programming.

Beth would like OLA’s support aslibraries are key providersof summer programming and have been involved with the pilot Summer Lunch, Learn and Libraries. November 24th is the deadline for a bill and Smith-Warner has one drafted. They are waiting to hear from DOE on its interest and cooperation.

After Beth and Bethany left, we had a lively discussion about the proposal. Abigail and Katie attended an information breakfast on November 6th and Katie went to the legislative breakfast on the 16th. While we continue to support the concept of enhanced summer programming involving public and school libraries, we see many pitfalls. The primary ones are a lack of definition of the role of libraries in proposed programming, the source of funding, and the management of an expanded program. Carol expressed concern that a new program would be competition for Summer Reading in terms of funding and legislative perception. Others wondered if we could consider an expanded Ready to Read program that emphasized community partnerships in providing summer literacy focused programs. Katie added that most of the SL3 pilots addressed pre-school children. Kate says that she has applied for an OCF grant to fund a children’s librarian that could provide more programming. Abigail wondered if we could align libraries with coordinated healthcare rather than the education system. She’s had difficulties working with the local school system.

We agreed that Nan would talk to Smith Warner to get a sense of the proposed legislation. Katie succinctly summarized our main issues/concerns.

  1. New Action Items
  • John will check with the Academic Division about funding for his travel to ALA Legislative Day.
  • MaryKay will send a copy of the COSLA/ALA LSTA letter to Jane will who will forward to our congressional contacts.
  • Abigail and Janet will review the Legislative Agenda for additions and edits.
  • Abigail and Janet will draft a letter about the DOJ surveillance for Jane to send to DOJ and copy the Oregon ACLU.
  • Nan will talk to Smith Warner about the Oregon ASK legislation and keep us posted as it develops.

Future Meetings: January 25 (changed due to MLK holiday); March 21 and May 16

Previous Action Items Not Addressed in the Meeting Notes

  • Jane and Korie to weed legislative day gift books, and solicit more for future events. PENDING
  • Kate, Buzzy, Sue to figure out how to best share district materials with OLA members without making them completely open. Kate asked for clarification on what we wanted. We agreed that the legal times and examples of a feasibility statement are useful and publicly accessible. We also suggested short (1-2 sentence) statements of different campaign strategies would be useful. Also, she could include a listing of the most useful references. All could be made publicly accessible without compromising strategies.
  • Can we give photos of legislators to OLA Communications Committee for social media purposes? PENDING
  • Janet and Abigail draft a letter for Jane emphasizing what is lost when a public library is no longer public in terms of ORS 357.001 for Harold to use for Douglas County. Consider approaching major Oregon foundations about their definition of a public library. PENDING
  • Review the proposed administrative rules from the State Library at the November meeting for OLA input. DELAYED
  • Ask Jane Corry to discuss with the OLA Board the role of OLA in board member selection. PENDING
  • Cathryn will send Elsa information on legal information vendors for the OLA conference. ???
  • Abigail will check with Mo Cole re: OLA involvement in the League of Oregon Cities conference (OLA was not involved but Cindy Gibbon from Multnomah County was part of a presentation on technology trends.) PENDING