Library Council of Washington Meeting Notes

LCW PRESENT
Carol Cahill, Public Libraries Ann Marie Clark, Special Libraries
Eve Datisman, School Libraries Sharon Winters, Information Technology
Nancy Graf, School Libraries Neel Parikh, Disadvantaged
Lethene Parks, Rural Libraries Linda Pierce, Academic 4 - Year
Leonoor Ingraham-Swets, Academic - 2 Year Yazmin Mehdi, Cultural Diversity
Jan Walsh, Ex-Officio, Acting Librarian, WSL

WSL PRESENT SPECIAL GUEST
Rand Simmons, Manager, Library Development Linda Martinez, Manager, Information
Jeff Martin, Grants Specialist Resources, Weyerhaeuser Library
Anne Yarbrough, Secretary Administrative

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
The Library Council of Washington meeting was called to order by Chair, Ann Marie Clark. Linda Martinez, Manager, Information Resources, Weyerhaeuser Co. Library, welcomed the LCW to Weyerhaeuser and gave a safety briefing.

REVIEW MEETING AGENDA
The meeting agenda was reviewed and approved.

MAY 2, 2002 MEETING NOTES
Nancy moved and Neel seconded the motion that the May 2, 2002 meeting notes be approved with minor changes. The motion passed.

UPDATE ON WSL RELATED TO LSTA AND LCW
- Jan briefed the Council on the status of the WSL budget and the transition into OSOS.
- WSL recently experienced a reduction of 18 staff members (4 vacant positions) due to the Governor's budget cuts, and might experience additional layoffs of up to 21 FTEs.
- With a 23% budget cut in 2004, services will have to be cut. The two choices are to eliminate reference services to state employees or to close the branches. The decision was made to close the branches; however, Department of Corrections and Department of Social and Health Services could contract with WSL for continuation of services and then go to the governor and request the money from the emergency fund.
- On July 1, 2002, the WSL officially became a division of the Office of the Secretary of State (OSOS). Some WSL staff is being moved into OSOS offices and some OSOS staff into WSL offices. WSL is undergoing a major reorganization, including adding a layer of middle management to increase communication between management and staff. The library collection is being moved to the 2nd floor, and most staff will be moved to the 4th floor. Many details of the transition have not been worked out yet, but for the most part, the transition is running smoothly.
- The LCW will continue to serve a significant role with OSOS. Additional advisory groups might also be formed, consisting of the library's public customers and state employee customers.

- Jeff provided the State Library Summit summary. Ann Marie, Neel, and Jan attended the summit and considered it a very positive meeting. The results of the summit should be used as a guide for both future decisions and the state plan. Jan will ask OSOS if the LCW should give their comments. If yes, the LCW will create a subcommittee.

- WSLC June 6th meeting - meeting notes
- The new WSL Cabinet members were introduced.
- Eight Diversity grants were awarded as recommended by the review committee.
- Comments and suggestions were made on the LSTA 5-year Plan. Dan Speigle will assist the subcommittee on revising the plan.

LSTA FIVE-YEAR RE-AUTHORIZATION
There are two bills before Congress to re-authorize LSTA funds. House Bill HR-3784 would provide $300,000,000 and Senate Bill S-2611 would provide $350,000,000. The impact on Washington state is that there would be up to 5.5 million in LSTA funds available (based on HR-3784), providing a match is met. We would need to require more matching funds in our initiative proposals, and thus from institutions that receive LSTA grants, in order to meet the federal match requirement. It was noted that institutional matches on SDL funding could be used as one method to achieve the match requirements. IMLS expects Congressional appropriations no sooner than December 2002.
Assignment: Jeff will e-mail Council members when re-authorization is passed.

LSTA FIVE-YEAR PLAN 2003-2007
Jeff presented the latest version of the plan, revised by the LSTA Five-Year Plan subcommittee. The Council recommended approval with very minor changes. The deadline for public comment has been extended to July 26, 2002. To date, only one comment has been submitted. When final changes are made, it will be forwarded to OSOS for signature, and submitted to the IMLS by July 31, 2002.

SPECIAL LIBRARIES VACANCY
Applications for the Special Libraries vacancy were reviewed:
· Susan K. Beebe, Lawyer Librarian; Carney, Badley, and Spellman Law Offices, Seattle
· Susan D. Smith, Self Sufficiency Specialist, Weyerhaeuser Library, Federal Way
· Nola Sterling, Director of Library Services, Federal Home Loan Bank, Seattle

The first vote resulted in a tie that was then broken by executive decision of the Chair, Ann Marie. Ann Marie felt that the Special Libraries Association's nomination should be respected and taken into consideration, so she cast her deciding vote for Nola Sterling.

A request was made to include resumes in the application process in the future. This led to a discussion that all Council guiding documents, including the By-Laws and WACs, as well as the nominating procedures should be reviewed. A committee was formed to make recommendations.
Assignment: Neel, Carol, Eve, Yazmin, and Jan were assigned to this subcommittee. Jeff will e-mail the URLs for the WACs to the subcommittee members.

TOUR OF HOST FACILITY
Linda Martinez, Manager, and Jerry Eckom, one of three Self Sufficiency Specialists, provided a tour of the Weyerhaeuser Library. The library serves Weyerhaeuser's 60,000 employees in numerous locations by providing trusted and mission-critical information employees need to do their jobs at the place where their work occurs. The library does this by concentrating on electronic resources; providing a web page that makes all resources easily accessible and readily identified; and by training employees to become self-sufficient researchers, rather than relying on library staff to retrieve information (thus, the job title Self Sufficiency Specialist, rather than Reference Librarian). Two Researchers are also on staff and a "Knowledge Integrator" serves as a liaison between library customers and IT to provide desk top delivery of services.

FY2003 PROPOSALS -REVIEW
The FY2003 proposals were reviewed and discussed with each sponsor taking the lead. Council decided to wait until the September 5 meeting to make final recommendations. By then, if either the House or Senate LSTA Re-authorization Bill passes, there may be enough funds to approve all proposals. Also, by then there should be a better understanding of the OSOS/WSL process and the changing role, if any, of the Council.
Assignment: Jan and Ann Marie will take list of proposals to OSOS for their review and recommendation. Sponsors will go back to the proposal to review their requested amount.

PROPOSAL PROCESS REVIEW
The proposal process was reviewed and a number of suggestions/comments/questions were made:
· A sponsor needs to be identified early in the process so there is an advocate on the Council for every proposal.
· There needs to be enough information on the Council web page for applicants to know which council member to contact.
· "Must include sponsor" needs to be added to the proposal application.
· If there is enough money, could the previously rejected Rural Telecommunications Library Endorsement proposal be reconsidered?
· There was a discussion about changing the deadlines for proposals and changing the months of the Council meetings.

INFORMATION SHARING AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS
No other business.

ITEMS FOR NEXT AGENDA
FY2003 Proposals, final recommendations
Proposals process review
WSL bi-monthly reports
IMLS Primary Source Newsletter

NEXT MEETING:
September 5, 2002, University Place Library, University Place, WA

Respectfully submitted,
Anne Yarbrough