Monthly Newsletter
April 2004
A New LSTA Grant Program - Missy Lodge
State Library Board Report
The Challenge of Public Access Computing - Jan Haines
Got Documents! - Audrey Hall
State Library Meeting Facilities - Jane Byrnes
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News Monthly Newsletter April 2004 |
Contents: A New LSTA Grant Program - Missy Lodge State Library Board Report The Challenge of Public Access Computing - Jan Haines Got Documents! - Audrey Hall State Library Meeting Facilities - Jane Byrnes |
A New LSTA Grant ProgramLibrary Services to Persons with Disabilities |
Missy Lodge Library Programs Administrator |
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The State Library is pleased to announce a new LSTA grant program on library services to persons with disabilities.
This new LSTA program is unique in two ways. First, the grant program focuses on a specific population, persons with disabilities. Secondly, in order to be eligible to apply for grant funds, a library must attend a mandatory workshop and submit a planning document along with the funding request.
Why focus on providing library services to persons with disabilities? According to statistics over 54 million Americans (or more than one in five) has some type of disability. Yet, severe disabilities impact only one in ten Americans. A person with minor vision impairment or with partial hearing loss in one ear is by definition a person with a disability. However, many of these persons would not characterize themselves as having a disability. Baby-boomers are also entering the definition of persons with disabilities as eyesight and hearing diminish and joints become less mobile.
Aging baby-boomers are also entering |
During the development of the LSTA State Five-Year Plan 2003-2007, the LSTA Advisory Council developed a goal to focus on services to the underserved, with a particular emphasis on the disabled and Ohio's growing diverse population. The goal of the State Library and the LSTA Advisory Council is to promote awareness of disability issues and the need to provide quality library services to these customers.
To achieve these goals, the LSTA Advisory Council directed the State Library to form a task force to address disability issues and indicated that LSTA funds should be directed toward a disability services program.
The task force is comprised of persons who have a strong background in working with people with disabilities.
Members of the task force are:
The task force and State Library staff have planned a practical and informative workshop for librarians wishing to implement services to persons with disabilities in their library. The workshop, Planning for Library Services for People with Disabilities, will be held at the State Library on June 16, 2004. The workshop and LSTA grant program are open to all types of libraries.
Barbara Mates, Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Cleveland will give the keynote address. She will be followed by two panel presentations. The first panel will be comprised of persons with disabilities discussing their experiences in the library setting and how they feel the library can better serve persons with disabilities.
The second panel will be librarians who have implemented service to persons with disabilities discussing why they set upon this course and what has been accomplished. Various disabilities and types of services and access will be addressed.
An extended lunch period will include an assistive technology fair. Several vendors have been invited to demonstrate their products.
Upon leaving the workshop, librarians |
The afternoon will focus on the development of a plan to serve persons with disabilities. For most public libraries, this plan can easily be a component of their strategic plan already in place. In order to develop a meaningful plan, community awareness and outreach are key concepts.
Trinka Messenheimer from Bowling Green State University will discuss Reaching Out or who to connect with in the community. She will be followed by Claudia Schroeder, Toledo Lucas County Public Library talking about how to begin making these community partnerships.
In conclusion, Roger Verny will address the planning process itself and how to incorporate everything learned into a viable plan for serving persons with disabilities. Missy Lodge will then discuss the LSTA piece.
Upon leaving the workshop, librarians will feel empowered to do planning, make connections and network with agencies in their community, and implement services to the disabled at their library. Workshop participants will go back to their communities to develop a plan for serving people with disabilities. The Plan, attached to a funding request, will be submitted to the State Library for funding of:
Please join us on June 16 from 9:30 - 4:00 to learn how your library can address the service needs of persons with disabilities. This is an exciting new initiative that we hope libraries will implement in their communities.
Registration for the workshop begins May 3, 2004 on the State Library's website: http://www.slocem.lib.oh.us
The Full Grant RFP is available on WINSLO at http://winslo.state.oh.us/publib/lstafull.html. Proposals are due at the State Library May 19, 2004.
At the April State Library Board meeting, the Board received a certificate of appreciation from INFOhio, the statewide cooperative school library and information network. The certificate was presented by John Myles, chair of the INFOhio Governing Advisory Board, thanking the State Library for its support of Ohio's school libraries.
Bruce Hawkins, CEO, Ohio Education Computer Network (OECN) also thanked the Board for the support of the State Library.
The Board heard a review of the Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries: The Ohio Research Study, presented by Dr. Ross Todd, School of Communication, Information & Library Sciences at Rutgers University.
The Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA), in collaboration with Leadership 4 School Libraries, received an $80,000 federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant through the State Library of Ohio to undertake the research project.
The goal of the Study was to provide comprehensive and detailed empirical evidence of how school libraries help students learn.
Dr. Todd explained that the study was conducted over 14 months and involved more than 13,000 students and 800 faculty. He said that for its $80,000, the State Library Board received:
OELMA is preparing a CD toolkit so that schools can conduct the study at the local level.
According to Dr. Todd, the study's findings are being disseminated world-wide and several state are discussing replicating the study.
Michael S. Lucas, State Librarian, updated the Board on the current status of the State Library budget. He gave them a copy of the letter that was sent to the Office of Budget and Management (OBM). The letter outlines the impact of the proposed 6% budget cut in fiscal year 2005. This budget cut has not been announced officially yet.
Roger Verny, Deputy State Librarian, announced that Ohio was one of 18 states nationally to receive a Gates Foundation Staying Connected grant. Ohio libraries will use the grant money to update and replace public access computing equipment for libraries that have populations living in areas of persistent poverty.
Receiving Gates Foundation "Staying Connected" Grants are:
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David Miller, Board member, moved that any decisions about funding of the regional library systems be delayed until after the new State Librarian is appointed and in place. The Board approved the motion.
The new State Librarian should be in office shortly after the current State Librarian retires on June 30, 2004.
The next State Library Board meeting will be Tuesday, May 11 at 1:00 in Columbus.
For the minutes of State Library Board meetings, go to http://winslo.state.oh.us/boardmin.html.
The Challenge of Public Access Computing in Rural Libraries |
Jan Haines Library Consultant |
Imagine 133 library staff members from 44 states finding consensus in identifying barriers to public access computing! In late February, representatives from rural public libraries, regional/coops and state libraries met at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss the challenges of sustaining public access computing in rural libraries.
Lorrie Wheeler, director of Claymont School District Library (Uhrichsville), Vicki Eckenrod, director of Seneca East Public Library (Attica), and Jan Haines, State Library of Ohio Consultant, represented Ohio in two one-day workshops to:
After facilitator Sandra Nelson helped the group determine the primary challenges and sustainability issues in libraries, public library staffs met to:
Representatives from rural public libraries, |
State library and regional/coop representatives met to:
Both groups were then asked to draft statewide action plans. By meeting together several times, listening to success stores and sharing poster sessions, 95 rural librarians were able to discuss advocacy and marketing, flexibility in the grant process, staff training, and technical support with 24 participants representing state libraries and 14 regional/coop staff members. Attendees were also invited to an optional session on strategies for public library advocacy.
WebJunction (http://webjunction.org/do/Home), an online community of libraries, has continued the sustainability effort by reporting on the workshop, holding and archiving an interactive online version of the workshop, providing an online message board to continue the discussions, and collecting stories from the attendees.
The State Library and the three representatives will soon meet with key partners to discuss challenges facing Ohio libraries in sustaining public access computing, and will participate in a follow-up survey by the Gates Foundation to measure how effective libraries have been at implementing their plans.
Got Documents!Not only do we "got state documents," we also share them with other libraries. |
Audrey Hall Library Consultant Government Information Services |
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It isn't grammatically correct but the State Library of Ohio does have documents. Perhaps better known as a regional depository for federal documents, we are also a depository for state documents. Not only do we "got state documents," we also share them as the distributor to other libraries. Authority to distribute state publications of general interest was given to the State Library by H.B. 27 in 1957. Continuously, since the depository plan became operational in 1959, monthly shipments have been sent to Ohio public and academic libraries, the Ohio Historical Society, the Library of Congress and even a few out of state libraries. The statutory authority is ORC 149.11.
Libraries that receive publications of general interest agree to make them accessible to all patrons. They must be kept for five years. After five years, they may remain in the collection, be offered to other libraries or discarded. Ohio documents cover a wide range of topics from sources of current consumer information to annual reports to individual personal details in older publications that genealogists love to find. There is even an engineering - economic feasibility report on building a bridge across Lake Erie to Ontario, Canada!
In some cases because of a small print run, agencies are able to send only two copies of a publication to the State Library. One copy is available for borrowing and one remains a reference copy. The State Library does not discard Ohio documents. All publications received are cataloged and included in the OCLC database making them available worldwide. The records are added to the OhioLINK central catalog. Hyper-links to publications with online equivalents are included in the bibliographic records.
Ohio documents cover a wide range |
Ohio Documents, a listing of distributed and non-distributed publications, is published quarterly with an annual accumulation. Ohio Documents is mailed to the majority of Ohio libraries and many out of state libraries. The publications that are received for distribution are indicated with an asterisk. The online version of Ohio Documents, found on the State Library's web site at http://winslo.state.oh.us/govinfo/govstdocs.html, also includes hyper-links to the online publications.
As the state budget tightens, fewer documents are being produced on paper. But we can provide access to documents that are "born digital." As long as the file extension is nonproprietary pdf or html, the document can be captured for the Digital Archive, making it permanently accessible even if the agency changes access on its web site. Digital Archive records are on OCLC and can be exported into a library's individual catalog. They are also available through OhioLINK.
Distribution of legislative publications was added to the State Library's duties in 1979 by S. 205. The publications include the legislative bulletin, the daily house and senate journals, pamphlet laws, and the Digest of Enactments published by the Legislative Service Commission. Libraries in addition to the depositories for general publications were recruited as legislative depositories to guarantee that one library in each county of the state receive the publications. The ability to best preserve the publications and make them conveniently accessible to all residents of the county was a factor in selection of the designated libraries.
The daily house and senate journals are mailed once every week while the general assembly is in session and the legislative bulletin, each pamphlet law, and the Digest of Enactments as they are published. The statutory authority for legislative depositories is ORC 149.12.
Legislative publications are considered primary source material and may not be discarded. They can, however, be stored off site if there are space concerns.
State document depository libraries are listed by city on our web site at: http://winslo.state.oh.us/govinfo/slogovt.html. All of the libraries listed receive Ohio legislative publications. An asterisk designates those libraries that also receive agency general publications.
For the state depository program to be successful, agencies must provide the State Library with copies of their publications. The Ohio Revised Code authorizes the depository program but does not provide any means for enforcement. Fortunately, most agencies realize the advantage of allowing the State Library to preserve their publications and send paper publications or notify us of electronic publications.
State Library Meeting FacilitiesMeeting A Need |
Jane Byrnes Public Information Officer |
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When the State Library moved into its current facility, the decision was made to make the meeting rooms available to state agencies and library groups free of charge.
The various meeting rooms can accommodate from 17 to 120 people. Some rooms are equipped with the latest presentation technology. In almost 3 years, the meeting rooms have become a heavily used service of the Library.
Most recently, Sen. George V. Voinovich, Gov. Bob Taft, and Dr. Mark McClellan, new Medicare chief spoke at a training program for volunteers who help seniors with Medicare issues. The program was sponsored by the Ohio Department of Insurance.
Governor Bob Taft at the podium, Dr. Mark McClellan and Senator George V. Voinovich
To find out more about the State Library meeting rooms, go to http://winslo.state.oh.us/mtgrmpol.html
