Library Council of Washington Meeting Notes

LCW PRESENT
Ann Marie Clark, Special Libraries
Michael Eisenberg, Information School
Nancy Graf, School Libraries
Yazmin Mehdi, Cultural Diversity
Neel Parikh, Disadvantaged
Lethene Parks, Rural Libraries
Nola Sterling, Special Libraries
Leonoor Ingraham-Swets, Academic - 2 Year
Jan Walsh, Ex-Officio, Acting State Librarian
Sharon Winters, Information Technology

SPECIAL GUEST
Cindy Bonaro, Managing Librarian, University Place Library

WSL PRESENT
Rand Simmons, Manager, Library Development
Jeff Martin, Grants Specialist
Karen Goettling, Consultant
Anne Yarbrough, Secretary Administrative

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
The Library Council of Washington meeting was called to order by Chair, Ann Marie Clark. Ann Marie introduced Nola Sterling, the Council's newly appointed member representing Special Libraries. The rest of the attendees each introduced themselves. During Lethene's introduction, she gave an update on the local petition regarding the Stevens County Rural Library District.

REVIEW MEETING AGENDA
The meeting agenda was reviewed and several changes were made.

APPROVAL JULY 11, 2002 MEETING NOTES
Neel moved that the July 11, 2002 meeting notes be approved and Lethene seconded the motion. The motion passed.

LSTA FIVE-YEAR RE-AUTHORIZATION UPDATE
Jeff reported that the re-authorization is still sitting in Congressional committee so there is nothing to report at this time.

LSTA FIVE-YEAR PLAN
Jeff contacted IMLS regarding any comments they might have on the Washington State LSTA Five-Year Plan. He hasn't heard back from IMLS yet, so there is nothing to report at this time.

FY2003 PROPOSALS
OSOS input
Jan reported that she, Karen, and Rand met with Steve Excel, Assistant Secretary of State, and reviewed all the FY2003 proposals. Steve thought everything looked good and acknowledged all the hard work that went into each of the proposals. He also expressed that he was comfortable with the LCW recommendations.

Final recommendationnal imooFInal Final recommendation
After a lengthy discussion, the Council made the following decisions:
1) To recommend elimination of LITWG.
2) Postpone three of the new proposals.
3) Substantially reduce grant funds for Cultural Diversity and Washington Preservation.
4) Reduce Statewide Database Licensing and IT CE Grants.
5) Cut $1,000 from most of the remaining proposals in order to make the $1,800,000 target, which is the amount expected if the FY2003 funding is "flat".

If the Congressional appropriation for LSTA is larger than anticipated, then some funding might be restored to the various proposals and grant cycle. Proposals will not be implemented until the FY2003 LSTA funds actually arrive. IMLS anticipates that will be in late December, at the earliest. The final recommendations the Council will make to the Secretary of State are:

Connecting Libraries and Communities: New proposal, postpone. (Originally proposed at $175,000)

Connecting Through Information Literacy: Fund at $74,000 (cut $1,000 from the proposed $75,000).
First phase of this proposal is fact-finding. This is a statewide project, not a Seattle project! Nice tie in to k-12 and InfoLit.

Continuing Education Grants: Fund at $60,000 (original proposed budget).
Ongoing grant. Very popular and much appreciated by libraries and their staff. This supports ALL libraries.

Coordinated Statewide Library Marketing: Fund at $108,500 (cut $1,000 from the proposed $107,500).
This initiative would give libraries the tools to market themselves and their services. A primary focus of this initiative would be "advocating for libraries" and enhancing librarian's skills to accomplish this focus. We can't afford to wait considering what is happening around the state, i.e., WSL and Stevens County. This is a relatively inexpensive cost for a much needed service. This is the 2nd year this initiative has been proposed. This would require a full time project manager to coordinate the project, Karen G. can handle the oversight. A project advisory committee over seen by Karen would decide what type of person to hire-either a PR or a marketing person. Neel, Ann Marie, and Mike E. are interested in serving on this committee. Nola will be the new LCW sponsor.

(Cultural) Diversity Initiative-Year 4: Fund at $250,000 (cut $110,000 from the proposed $360,000).
This is an ongoing project. Attendance at training has dropped recently so funds will be used for grants only, not for feasibility study or training.

Family Literacy Initiative: Postpone. (Originally proposed at $45,000)
A valuable initiative because it builds on Early Learning and Cultural Diversity and involves multi-type library collaboration. One negative to postponing is that other funding from the state level is disappearing this summer. A .5 FTE would be needed to manage this project.

Grant Training Workshops: Postpone. (Originally proposed at $35,000)
This project would involve contracted training services, but also some in-house. Small libraries have the most need of this training. As an alternative, WSL Library Development staff can advise small libraries on grant writing. WSL needs to keep the application process as simple as possible.

IT Continuing Education Grants: Fund at $45,000 (cut $5,000 from the proposed $50,000).

K-12 School Library Initiative: Fund at $113,500 (cut $1,000 from the proposed $114,500).

K-20 Phase III-Public Libraries Fund at $82,000 (cut $1,000 from the proposed $83,000).
This project will be used as part of the required match with Gates.

LITWG: Eliminate. (Orignally proposed at $10,000)
The group has largely served their original purpose so they are disbanding.

Statewide Database Licensing Project: Fund at $635,350 (cut $9,000 from the proposed $644,350).
This has "over 90%" participation and strong visibility. WSL, as well as local libraries, need to "brand" this site to be more visible. It may be time to reconnect with K-20 to provide funds to support this. The local contributions to this project can be used as part of the LSTA match. The SDL video needs to be distributed widely. Its okay to fund this year after year; some states pay for all of the project with LSTA funds, year after year.

Virtual Reference Initiative: Fund at $299,824 (cut $1,000 from the proposed $300,824).
This has potential for great impact on state. Need to get a clear message out. LII (Librarian Index to the Internet) works with other libraries to market it. Library can concentrate on local internet information, LII does the larger search. Sharon will be the new sponsor.

Washington Preservation Initiative: Fund at $131,000 (cut $100,000 from the proposed $231,000).
There is some confusion on the timelines, so Jeff contacted Gary Menges during break and then reported that the preliminary survey was done but they may need to do an additional, more comprehensive survey. The Council was concerned that there would not be time for them to initiate grants in a timely manner.

TOTAL: $1,798,174 ( Original proposals totaled $2,292,174)

TOUR OF HOST FACILITY - PCL UNIVERSITY PLACE
Cindy Bonaro, Managing Librarian, provided a tour of the University Place Library, a branch of the Pierce County Library System. The library is one of nine built through a 1986 library bond. Each branch is unique according to its community. The library has become the hub of the town of University Place, with the City Hall and other city offices springing up around it. The library has a very active youth services program, including a program where teens provide book reviews for other teens, and a poet project for youth-"In our own words."

PROPOSAL PROCESS REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF PRIORITIES FOR THE NEW CYCLE
Jeff suggested that we need to continue the regular Council schedule rather than make changes as discussed at the July 11 meeting. It is too difficult to prepare Council meetings too close together, every other month works well. If anything comes up in between regularly scheduled meetings, it could be handled by sub-committee rather than a full Council meeting. There were no objections.

It was agreed that "sponsor required" would be added onto the application form. If applicants don't know who to ask to sponsor their proposal, they can contact the Washington State Library staff and ask for a referral.

GRANT CYCLE PROCESS AND UPDATE ON WSL RELATED TO LSTA AND LCW
Regarding LCW's role and involvement in the grant review process, the State Librarian and the Secretary of State will replace the role that the Commission previously had in the process. For each grant cycle, a grant review committee will be formed including Library Development staff, project advisory committee members, Council members, and other agency staff. Sub-groups within the review committee, consisting of 4-6 outside reviewers plus staff and agency personnel, will review a limited number of applications and provide feedback.

Electronic applications would be encouraged. The signature page would be mailed, along with any attachments that were unavailable electronically.

A "Blind Review" would add credibility and any reference to the applicant would be easier to delete if application was sent electronically.

The judging criteria will be revised and made more clear to applicants.

Criteria for review of grants will be distributed to the Secretary of State for his information prior to the opening of the grant cycle.

Instead of meetings at a central location, Review Committee meetings could be done by conference calls or teleconferences in order to cut costs but still provide collaboration.

Promotional opportunities and press releases will be used to announce grant awards.

The timeline for implementation of grant award remains about the same.

COUNCIL ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS - PROPOSED CHANGES
Neel walked the Council through the suggested changes the sub-committee made to the Washington Administrative Code, By-laws, membership application process, and mission statement. Additional corrections and changes were suggested by Council members including making documents consistent in format and titles, and changing the wording "all citizens of Washington State" to "all people of Washington State." Neel moved that the changes to the By-laws be approved, Leonoor seconded, the motion passed.

Council Contacts-moved to next meeting agenda

INFORMATION SHARING AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Jonalyn Woolf-Ivory, representing Public Libraries Over 1000,000, submitted a letter of resignation from the Council, dated September 4, 2002.

Several members will be rotating off Council next year, creating vacancies in addition to Jonalyn's position. The vacant positions will be: Disadvantaged, Information-Technology, Public Libraries Over 1000,000, and Special Libraries.
Assignment: Anne Marie, Neel, and Leonoor volunteered for the nomination sub-committee. They will begin the recruitment process.

The Council was enthusiastic about Linda Pierce being appointed to a second term.
Assignment: Jeff will contact Linda to confirm her desire to continue.

A new Vice-Chair was identified to replace Jonalyn's remaining term. Neel will serve in that capacity for the November meeting.

The 2003 Meeting Calendar was discussed. Meeting dates were identified and possible locations were suggested:

January 9, 2003--Olympia or Seattle
March 6, 2003--Olympia
May 1, 2003--Clark College
July 10, 2003--school location TBD
September 4, 2003--UW Suzzallo
November 6, 2003--Seattle

Nola would like to host the Council at the Federal Home Loan Bank Library so she will check her board room schedule for availability.

Jan gave an update on the Washington State Library.
- "Friends of the Washington State Library" is being revived.
- WSL plans to actively partner with WLA, Continuing Education, WLMA, and SLA.
- The WSL staff will publish a WSL newsletter. The first issue deadline is the end of September.
- WSL is involved in the Washington State Sesquicentennial honoring the 150th anniversary of Washington becoming a territory.
- The State Territorial Collection is being catalogued, the first of several sesquicentennial projects .
- Robert Ficken, author of the new book, Washington Territory, is coming to WSL to do a book signing and reading on Thursday, November 14, 2002, from 5-8 p.m., as part of the Washington Territory Sesquicentennial Celebration.

WRAP UP; ITEMS FOR NEXT AGENDA
- Revision of Council Contacts List
- Election of Officers
- Review Proposed Process Timeline

Respectfully submitted ,
Anne Yarbrough