[Libs-Or] LTLO October 2011

[Jessica Rondema]

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[OSL Building]
Letter to Libraries Online

An Electronic Newsletter from the Oregon State Library

Volume 21, Issue 10, October 2011


Contents:
Library Board News
State Library News
Other Library News
P.S. (From the State Librarian)
Contacts at the State Library


Library Board News


Board Chair Invites Top Three for State Librarian Final Round Interviews

[Librarian]On September 23rd, the Screening Panel members held initial interviews by telephone to consider candidates for the Oregon State Librarian position. The Screening Panel members were charged to assist the Board with the first round interview process. After a day of interviewing, the Panel selected three candidates to proceed to the final interviews. They are Joanne Budler, currently Kansas State Librarian and former Ohio State Librarian; Robert Hulshof-Schmidt, Program Manager of Government Research Services at the Oregon State Library; and Daniel Siebersma, presently South Dakota State Librarian. As part of the final interview process, lead recruiter Twyla Lawson will facilitate forums for staff and stakeholders to meet with the candidates, view a presentation from each, and provide feedback for the Board's consideration. The final interviews are tentatively scheduled for October 19th and 20th, pending final arrangements. On the morning of October 21st, the Board will hold its regularly scheduled meeting. At 1 p.m., the Board will hold a public session to inform the public of the recruitment progress and hear comments regarding the employment of a new State Librarian. After another Executive Session, the Board will consider its options for selecting the next Oregon State Librarian.

State Library Board to Award LSTA Grants

In addition to their work to select a new Oregon State Librarian, the State Library Board will other take up other important business at their meeting on October 21st in Salem. The Board will hear recommendations from the LSTA Advisory Council about competitive grant awards for 2012. The Council is recommending 13 grants be funded totaling approximately $670,000. The Council is also recommending funding for statewide projects like L-net and the Oregon School Library Information System. In addition to deliberating on the recommendations of the LSTA Council, the Board will also deliberate on options to reduce the Library's 2011-13 budget that have been requested by the Legislative Fiscal Office. The Office is preparing for the February 2012 session of the Legislature by asking all agencies to create contingency plans to reduce their approved biennial budgets in case state revenue does not come in as forecast. The Board will hear a staff recommendation on options to reduce the Library's General Fund budget up to 10.5%. The General Fund funds the Ready to Read Grant program and Talking Book and Braille Services. The Board will also need to adopt reduction options of up to 10.5% for the Library's Government Research Services program.

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State Library News


Governor Proclaims Oregon and Fujian Library Friendship Day

[OR State Seal]Governor John Kitzhaber proclaimed September 26, 2011, to be Oregon and Fujian Library Friendship Day. The proclamation was presented in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian, by two Oregon librarians who travelled there at the invitation of the Fujian Provincial Library. Rosalind Wang who works for the Multnomah County Library and Frances Lau who is retired from many years with Blackwell's Library Services in Lake Oswego presented the proclamation at the celebration of the centennial of the Fujian Provincial Library. Library Director Zhiming Zheng received the Governor's proclamation on behalf of libraries in Fujian. The proclamation recognizes the 22 years that Oregon and Fujian librarians have been building a strong relationship, beginning with the sister library agreement between the Oregon State Library and the Fujian Provincial Library in 1989. In those 22 years Oregon librarians have coordinated two major shipments of English language books to Fujian, and over 30 librarians from both countries have made extended official visits to learn about library practices and share professional knowledge. "We are grateful for the Governor's proclamation and hope that we can continue to extend our ties to our library colleagues in Fujian," commented State Librarian Jim Scheppke.

Battle of the Books Titles in Accessible Formats are at the State Library

Talking Book and Braille Services has many of the books for 2011-2012's Battle of the Books on digital audio cartridge and downloadable audio (BARD). Some titles are even available in Braille format. We have copies on hand and ready to loan to registered patrons so call to reserve your student's books today. You can reach us Monday through Friday at 800-452-0292. A friendly Reader's Advisor is on hand now waiting to take your book order. If your student isn't registered yet for Talking Books, download an application<http://www.tbabs.org> and mail in the original. We'll process the application and get materials in your student's hands within a few days. If you have any questions call or leave a message at 800-452-0292.

Oregon Center for the Book at 11th Annual National Book Festival

[NBF]Oregon author Judy Cox of Ontario, Oregon was the featured attraction at the Oregon booth at the annual National Book Festival held on September 24th on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Cox displayed a copy of her brand new book Haunted House, Haunted Mouse,<http://www.judycox.net/works.htm> the third book in her Mouse series. Also on hand were Katie Anderson, who coordinates the Oregon Center for the Book, and Oregon Library Association past president, Sara Charlton. The free festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress, had well over 200,000 people in attendance. The Oregon booth was part of the Pavillion of the States, sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Representatives from state libraries and Centers for the Book provided information and answered questions about their state's authors, libraries, book festivals, book awards, and reading-promotion activities. In the Pavilion of the States, thousands of children raced to each state table getting state stamps on their maps of America. IMLS awarded a prize to each person who successfully filled the entire map. New this year was the Wells Fargo booth at which Oregon author Deborah Hopkinson read her book Stagecoach Sal<http://www.deborahhopkinson.com/New%20Books/stagecoach.html> on the hour, every hour, and distributed free copies of the book.

The 2012 Letters About Literature Contest Has Begun

Letters About Literature is a national reading and writing contest sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and Target. Students write letters to an author explaining how that author's book changed their way of thinking about the world or themselves. There are three competition levels: Level I for 4th-6th graders, Level II for 7th-8th graders, and Level III for 9th-12th graders. Oregon's three winners (one from each competition level) will go on to compete nationally. Entry forms and guidelines are now available online<http://www.lettersaboutliterature.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Guidelines_School_Library_2012_pdf.213142425.pdf>. All entries must be postmarked January 6, 2012. Librarians and teachers can download and print posters, bookmarks, and stickers to distribute to your students and patrons. Lesson plans and an outline connecting Letters About Literature to national language arts and reading standards are available online<http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/LD/youthsvcs/aboutlit.shtml>. In 2011 over 900 students in Oregon entered the contest, and 1 in 11 of them received cash prizes or gift certificates to Borders bookstore. These prizes are made possible through support from the Oregon Reading Association, Oregon Association of School Libraries, and the Oregon Library Association's Children Services Division and Young Adult network.

Please visit the website<http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/LD/youthsvcs/aboutlit.shtml> for more information or contact Katie Anderson<mailto:katie.anderson at state.or.us>, coordinator of the Letters About Literature activities in Oregon.

Volunteer Completes Vertical File Project

[Vintage Clipping]Like many libraries, OSL compiled a vertical file for years, specializing in Oregon subjects. It includes biographical information (from Gov. George Abernathy to Timothy Zahn), and subject information (from Abiqua, battle of, to Zoos). Most of the items are clippings from newspapers, and have deteriorated with time; some had become extremely fragile. Enter volunteer Sue Bell. For over 10 years, Sue has spent one morning a week photocopying the vertical file clippings onto acid-free paper. She recently completed this mammoth copying task. With approximately 3,000 files in the vertical file, we estimate that Sue has made at least 100,000 copies, frequently having to make multiple copies to accommodate large clippings. Sue has put in over 2,000 volunteer hours, and gone through three copy machines. Sue's efforts allow the important information in the OSL vertical file to be available for research for years to come.

For a list of subjects in the OSL Vertical File, visit the vertical file index<http://library.state.or.us/home/lib/obvf.html>.

2012 Ready to Read Grant Update

The 2011-2012 Ready to Read Grant applications were due August 31, 2011. This year 128 of 129 eligible libraries applied for the grant by the deadline. Grants were reviewed in September. The revised Ready to Read Grants chart will be mailed to libraries the first week in October. Information will be included in the mailing regarding the appeals process.

Please contact Katie Anderson at 503-378-2528 or katie.anderson at state.or.us if you have any questions.

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Other Library News


Monroe Branch Gets CDGB Funding

Benton County received an Oregon Community Development Block Grant of $1,375,000 to build a new branch library in Monroe. The Monroe Branch is part of the Corvallis-Benton County Library system, operated by the City of Corvallis. Fundraising for the project has been underway for several years and over $1 million has already been raised in private local and foundation funding for the project. The CDGB grant will enable the project to break ground in April 2012. A 7,550 square foot library will replace the current 1,200 square foot library at Monroe City Hall. The site for the new library faces Monroe High School on Highway 99W. An old train depot has already been moved to the site and will be incorporated into the design. "It will be a chance to complete a badly needed new library in the Monroe Community," Corvallis-Benton County Library Director Carolyn Rawles-Heiser said.

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P.S. (From the State Librarian)



[Jim Scheppke]It was two years ago that we launched the digital talking book program at the State Library, replacing our old cassette books. It was a long time coming. Our Talking Book and Braille Services really suffered for not having up to date technology to offer our users. Between 2005 and 2009 we watched helplessly as our registered users declined by about a third.

Those bad old days are over now. In the past fiscal year, ending June 30th, our circulation jumped by 19%. 2010-11 was a record setting year for TBABS with circulation of over 420,000, the highest ever. We are netting about 75 new customers every quarter now (new registrations minus discontinued registrations). Our patrons love the digital talking books.

We do an annual customer satisfaction survey. We call a statistically valid sample of our users and ask them several questions about their service. When we conducted the survey last May the result was that 86% of our customers rated their service as "excellent." That was an increase of 8 percentage point over the "excellent" ratings in 2010. We attribute that mostly to the popularity of digital talking books.

Our demographics don't look like those of a typical public library. Just over 40% of our customers are age 81 and up. And another 30% are age 60 to 80. These are older people who have been readers all their lives, and are faced with the challenge of losing their vision later in life. TBABS is a godsend to these people. Maybe that's another reason we get such high marks when we ask about their satisfaction with the program.

Along with digital talking books on cartridges that we send to users' homes through the mail, we also have a download program called BARD. Users can get a password and go to our website and download as many books as they like to a computer. They can then load them on a flash drive that plays in our digital talking book players that we provide to all our customers. These are specially formatted DAISY books that are well-protected from getting out to folks who are not qualified for our service. Already about 20% of our customers are registered for BARD.

We do have a problem that as our usage grows, our budget has remained flat. One way to cope with this is to encourage more and more of our users to use BARD, or to have a friend or relative or caregiver use BARD to download books for them. There is some talk that in the future it might be possible to retrofit the digital talking book players to accept a wireless download, just like the Kindle does. That would save a lot on postage (paid by the Federal government) and save us a lot of staff time. I hope that happens someday.

What looked to be a dying service a few years ago is now thriving. I am grateful to my staff for managing the transition to digital talking books so capably. If you know of someone who could benefit from talking books, I hope you will go to our website<http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/TBABS/> to learn more, and encourage them to sign up. It's a wonderful service that I know they will like. - Jim Scheppke

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Contacts


Oregon State Library

Library Development: 503-378-2525, MaryKay Dahlgreen<mailto:marykay.dahlgreen at state.or.us>, Ferol Weyand<mailto:FerolWeyand at oslmail.osl.state.or.us>, Darci Hanning<mailto:darci.hanning at state.or.us>, Ann Reed<mailto:ann.reed at state.or.us>, Jennifer Maurer<mailto:jennifer.maurer at state.or.us>, Katie Anderson<mailto:katie.anderson at state.or.us>.

Talking Book and Braille Services: 503-378-5389, Susan Westin<mailto:susan.b.westin at state.or.us>.[OSL Logo]

Government Research Services: 503-378-5030, Robert Hulshof-Schmidt<mailto:robert.hulshof-schmidt at state.or.us>.

State Librarian: 503-378-4367, Jim Scheppke<mailto:jim.b.scheppke at state.or.us>.

LTLO Editor: 503-378-2464, Jessica Rondema<mailto:jessica.rondema at state.or.us>.

Letter to Libraries Online is published monthly by the Oregon State Library. It is available free of charge and is published only in electronic form on the publications page on the Oregon State Library's homepage: http://www.oregon.gov/OSL.

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