library of california
Planning Region VII
Ventura + Santa Barbara + San Luis Obispo
Minutes approved by Region VII Core Planning Group, 1-27-2000.
REGION VII CORE PLANNING GROUP
DECEMBER 16, 1999
CHAIR: David Dowell Cuesta College
SPECIAL GUESTS Diana Paque State Library
Bessie Condos Tichauer State Library
ATTENDEES: Patricia Allaback Cate School
Beverly Braun Non-Profit Support Center of Santa Barbara
Leslie Bretall College of the Canyons
Marcia Frasier Santa Maria Public Library
Joanie Galang Santa Susana High School
Irene Hoffman California Polytechnic State University
Joanne Kennedy St. John’s Regional Medical Library
Starrett Kreissman Ventura County Library
Linda Mier Santa Barbara H. S. District -- Dos Pueblos H. S.
John Murray Westmont College
Myra Nicholas Santa Barbara Public Library
Sarah Pritchard University of California Santa Barbara
Jean Scully San Luis Obispo City/County Library
Judith Segel Black Gold Cooperative Library System
Terri Sheridan Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Octavio Sifuentes Ventura College
Bill Stokes Santa Maria Bonita School District
Bryan Thompson Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center
CALL TO ORDER 1:00 p.m. by David Dowell, Presiding, at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
INTRODUCTIONS: Diana Paque, recently appointed Director of the Library of California, and Bessie Condos Tichauer, Region VII liaison
1. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
The Agenda was adopted as printed.
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 18, 1999
The minutes, corrected 12-10-99 on the Region VII web page, were accepted as posted. Corrections as requested by Brian Reynolds: In item number 3, second sentence “will probably” was changed to “may” and the phrase following “and” was deleted.
3. REPORTS
LIBRARY OF CALIFORNIA – Diana Paque and Bessie Condos Tichauer
a. Diana Paque talked about her background; her most recent position was at Solano Community College Library.
b. Bylaws. Drafted bylaws are going to come out at the end of this week (12-17-99). Much of the format depends on the type of corporation. Most corporations don’t fall under the Brown Act, as we do. The legal team has prepared a fairly extensive outline with places to fill in the blanks for our own information. The drafted bylaws are about twenty-five pages long. The draft of Articles of Incorporation is two pages long.
c. Supplemental Funding Available: Five million dollars have been awarded as planning grants, etc. Seven million dollars remain to be awarded as grants to Regions for projects and services. The simple application is being completed and will be distributed the week of December 20. It includes a one-page report asking for a summary of how we’ve spent the money we’ve received so far and four pages about how we’re planning to use the supplemental grant. Each idea for spending money requires its own application. We can ask for funding for as many projects as we have ideas for. The applications must be returned by January 19, 2000. Initial response will be given at the State Library meeting on January 28, 2000. Although the initial applications have to be in by January, the money does not have to be spent this year. The types of projects they are looking for are those which will encourage institutions not previously involved to become involved, rather than a continuing expense. Examples would be providing an ISP for people without email, or even putting in a computer for them. A Delivery Service is not an acceptable grant project. An amount in hundreds of thousands would be reasonable. If they can take action by the April meeting, the money should be sent out in May. The requests can be refined after the January meeting, probably by March or April. Let them know which requests are in rough form.
Suggested projects:
· Marketing plan, press kit, etc., with Directory of libraries in the Region, both electronic and paper. Irene Hoffman and David Dowell.
· Consultant to analyze electronic status and readiness of all Region VII Libraries, followed by a project to link those that are ready and a grant program to give assistance to selected non-automated libraries to come online and join the linked networks. John Murray, Sarah Pritchard and Patty Allaback.
Suggested projects continued:
· Project to offer free online data base Reference and Information Service to Region VII libraries to encourage involvement. Starrett Kreissman and Octavio Sifuentes.
· Videoconferencing for Region VII. Myra Nicholas, John Murray and Octavio Sifuentes.
· Training [Editor’s Note: These suggestions were made after the meeting in discussions with Region VII members.]
1. Hands-on Electronic Reference Training, both beginning and advanced, to saturate the Region. Judith Segel.
2. Scholarships for staff attendance at important electronic conferences, like the Internet Librarian Conference. Judith Segel and Carol Keator.
Diana Paque reported that the Library of California has requested $28.1 million.
d. Communication from the State Library is going to be improved. Diana Paque would like to pass along information through email; she wants to see that information goes both to the people who are involved in the planning and to those who just want information.
e. On Friday 12-17-99, Diana Paque and Bessie Condos Tichauer will meet with Barbara Jeffus from the State Library regarding the issue of school library membership and whether the school has a librarian with an MLS or a media credential or equivalent experience. There is also a concern about special libraries, such as medical libraries, in which the medical records employee often acts as librarian. All of the regions have reported problems with the issue of school membership; we will be informed as information becomes available. There are still many questions at Library of California, but they will try to help the regions as much as possible. Their guidance will not be binding, however, as decisions come from the region.
Perhaps we should offer a temporary or preliminary membership in cases in which they have someone finishing school, for instance. Another question raised was regarding a situation in which a school district has perhaps thirty schools and only one person with a media credential. Is that one person sufficient for the entire district to qualify for membership?
f. A question was raised as to whether anyone with academic library experience would be appointed to the Board. Diana Paque said that when the Board members rotate off the Board, there will be opportunity for the different types of libraries to be better represented.
4. REPORTS BY THE SUBCOMMITTEES
A. Membership: Report by Patty Allaback, chair. The committee is still fine-tuning membership criteria. They’ve posted their results on the web site. A question was raised regarding school districts: Should a school district have just one vote, or should each school within the district have a vote? For governance purposes, the member is the institution. This issue will be addressed in the Bylaws.
Another question was in regard to charter schools. They act autonomously, although they are in a district. Their fiscal autonomy was passed by the governor, and they control their own budgets. Some of them have media credentialed librarians. Diana Paque and Bessie Condos Tichauer recommended that we look at how the school district treats charter schools to help us decide how we should treat them.
A high school in our region was refused participation in RAND because their librarian does not have an MLS or a media credential. Diana Paque commented that there the law was interpreted narrowly, and that we should take such problems to Library of California. They will most likely admit the institution if the region wants to admit it. We will need to have the region review any membership denials.
Patty Allaback can be contacted by email [email protected] or by fax at 805.684.8940.
B. Communication: Report by Myra Nicholas, chair. Myra can be contacted at fax number 805.962.6304 or email [email protected].
Newsletter: A newsletter outline on one 11” x 17” sheet of paper folded once, crafted by Judith Segel and Jeanne Callahan, was passed around the table. It is set up so that there is a place for a mailing label and stamp on the last page, and there is also a routing slip, for use within each institution. Jeanne drafted some stories.
We are aiming the newsletter at the people who were invited to the reception held in August, approximately 700, including a lot of schools. We want to avoid excluding anyone through lack of contact. The first issue is planned for January publication. In the second issue we will ask people to let us know whether they want to continue receiving the newsletter. Judith Segel will be editor, and Jeanne Callahan will be assistant editor. Everyone will need to send information for the newsletter. Although the newsletter probably will be posted on the web site, we want something on paper, as well as posted information.
Our new name, Gold Coast Regional Network, will be printed on the existing Region VII stationery. New orders of stationery will reflect the new name.
David Dowell asked that we do not attach long files to ListServ because they don’t go through. A long file should be sent regular email. He also discussed our web site design. A student did basic design for our web site. It was agreed that Judith Segel and Kevin Bontenbal will locate a person to finish work on the web site, with a maximum fee to be paid of $1,000.
John Murray spoke about press releases. His handout addressed “Press Releases/Relations. He thinks that we need to continually release information from the State regarding levels of service and personnel. We should take advantage of certain happenings, such as when the State Librarian is speaking in town, and then send out press releases. However, he feels that we should do press releases about Library of California only after we have been approved as a network. Instead, John thinks the web site is critical at this time. We can link to the handouts, which explain how the Library of California will help each type of person/institution first. Then we need to involve heads of schools and institutions. He says that some people will need personal contact first, and then we can think about newspaper articles.
Myra Nicholas met with Sarah Pritchard. They want to get a list and write to all potential member institutions. They will hold a two-hour meeting in which a speaker will give a quick overview regarding potential services, and then allow for questions. The meeting will be on January 20th, at Santa Barbara Public Library from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Diana Paque and David Dowell have said they plan to attend. The mailing list will be drawn from the list used to invite people to the reception in August and from a list provided by the State Library. The State Library will send a list of Region VII libraries to Myra Nicholas, along with mailing labels and a disk containing the list. Final disposition of the list of libraries will be to deposit the disk/list with the Region VII fiscal agent at Black Gold CLS.
A Ventura focus group meeting has been set for January 13, [Editor’s Note: On 12/23/99, Starrett Kreissman notified the Region VII fiscal agent that the date had been changed to January 20.] and a flyer will be going out soon.
C. Transition of Services: Jean Scully, chair. Jean Scully can be contacted at fax number 805.781.1166 or email: [email protected].
Jean compiled the results of the survey on expectations. The special libraries want help in getting automated and online. The schools also would like to be online. They will have to be automated in order to participate. The questionnaire is to be passed out at the county focus information meetings. Corporate libraries don’t seem as interested; they’re more complete within themselves.
D. Bylaws: Octavio Sifuentes, chair. Octavio can be contacted at fax number 805.648.8900 or email: [email protected]. Institutional libraries will be included in the special libraries category, so the categories are special, academic, school and public. Comments were made that we need to be sure there is provision for changing the bylaws, and that we could put something about resource libraries in the bylaws. We may want to reserve a resource library seat on the Board. After David Dowell receives the template for the bylaws, he will pass it along to the Committee chair and Region VII fiscal agent. Octavio will prepare a Revised Version of the Region VII draft Bylaws to be posted on the Gold Coast Library Network web page.
5. AWARENESS EVENTS AND CONTACTS
A. County Focus Meetings
There are now lists of institutions (Core Planning Group and information only) for each county, sorted by zip code. If desired, mailing labels for these lists can be made available by the Region VII office staff. The county meetings are designed to include those who cannot travel far enough to attend our regular meetings.
B. Application for network status
Diana Paque will send a timetable for application for network status to Region VII. The law and regulations require 60 days advance notice to the Library of California Board. If a region is not successful in turning in an application in March, it will not have to wait a full year to reapply. Everything will just be a little later. We need members to be eligible for State money.
The transition we’re making is from the California Library Services Act. The Black Gold Cooperative Library System operates under a JPA that is independent of CLSA. Black Gold is interested in having a seat on the Region VII governing body as suggested in the draft bylaws.
6. OTHER BUSINESS
Future Meetings of the Core Planning Group:
· January 27, 2000 Ventura Foster Library
· February 24, 2000 UCSB, Santa Barbara
· March 23, 2000 Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
· April 27, 2000 Santa Barbara Main Library
· May 25, 2000 Righetti High School
These meetings will begin at 1:00 p.m.
10. NEXT MEETING: Thursday, January 27, 2000 at 1:00 p.m. Ventura Foster Library.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m. Recorded by Jeanne Callahan