[AL-Directors] News From the State Library

[MaryKay Dahlgreen]

Dear Library Directors-
As many of you know the 2015 Legislative Session came to a close on Monday July 6th. There were several pieces of legislation that affected the Oregon State Library and I wanted to update you on the final outcome of the Session for the State Library and libraries in Oregon.

I am very pleased to announce that we are fully funded for the 2015-2017 biennium. As some of you may remember, we were only given one year of funding  by the 2013 Legislature and given our second year in July of 2014. While we have a mostly flat budget we are very pleased that beginning in July of 2016 a position in Talking Book and Braille Library that has been funding on donation funds for a number of years will be shifted to general fund. We also received approval to add a librarian position, using federal LSTA funds,  for the Answerland move to the State Library.

HB 2479 which made changes to the Ready to Read Grant program and provided an increase in funding to accommodate the additional 15-17 years olds did not make it past the Committee phase and so will not be implemented. The Task Force that Katie Anderson convened last year did a great job of aligning the program with current education initiatives and I believe that the changes proposed were good ones. I will be working with the State Library Board and the public library community to determine our next steps. The one change that was not contingent upon passage of the bill was the move to outcome based evaluation and we will be moving forward with that requirement for Ready to Read grant reporting.  The grant applications will go out early next week. Thank you for your patience while we waited for final word.

HB 3523,  which was introduced in April by the Joint Committee on Ways and Means and which outlines changes in State Library organization as well as approaches for reducing duplication, was passed and signed by the Governor. The bill makes changes to the make-up of the State Library Board, makes the State Librarian a gubernatorial appointment, and directs the State Library to review and approve state agency electronic and print subscriptions as well as certifying other state agency libraries. This bill becomes effective on January 1, 2016 which provides us with some time to propose administrative rules to the State Library Board in December. We will be working with other state agency staff to draft the rules  and there will be public hearings and opportunities for public comment on the rules before adoption by January 1, 2016.

The 2013-2015 biennium was very interesting for the State Library and I believe that 2015-2017 will also be interesting, just in a different way. Thanks to all of you for your support as well as your suggestions and ideas.  It is a pleasure to have such a strong relationship between the State Library and the Oregon library community. Thanks also to the staff of the State Library who have worked through very uncertain and difficult times and are stronger than ever. The State Library Board, under the leadership of Aletha Bonebrake, has created an excellent strategic plan that will help us continue to improve and build over the next two years.

I have attached a recap I compiled of the 2013-2015 biennium, it was good for me to review what happened this biennium as we move forward into the next one.

Thanks,
MaryKay

MaryKay Dahlgreen
Oregon State Librarian
503-378-4367
marykay.dahlgreen at state.or.us
http://oregon.gov/osl
[Slogan Text]
Summer Reading 2015

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