PNLA Quarterly, Vol. 63 No.2 Winter 1999
MONTANA
Barry Brown, Montana Representative
People
Renee Goss, Director of the Sidney Public Library, was selected as Montana's first "MCI Cybrarian of the Year." Librarians in each state were given the title MCI Cybrarian of the Year based on their commitment to using technology to better serve their community and their trailblazing efforts to provide technology to library patrons.The September issue of MEA Today contains a profile of the 1999 Montana Teacher of the Year finalists, one of which is Niki Whearty, Library/Media/Technology teacher at Helena High School.
Judy Meadows, State Law Librarian, was recognized at the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries in July at Anaheim, CA. During the closing ceremony of the meeting several legal publishers presented Judy with a plaque from Montana governor Marc Racicot thanking her for representing Montana at the national level and calling her one of the treasures of the "Treasure State."
Karen Hatcher, Dean of the Libraries, University of Montana, (and former PNLA president) has announced her retirement in January, 2000. After working 31 years, 6 months for the Mansfield Library, she is retiring as Dean and will be returning to the library in a new capacity for a 3 year, one third time appointment.
Linda McCulloch, Bonner Elementary School Librarian and Montana Library Association Member, was re-elected to another term in the Montana Legislature as the representative for HD 70.
Marian Geil, retired assistant librarian, wrote a book on the history of the Hearst Free Library.
The Montana Library Community recently lost some longtime members. Greta Chapman, former Lincoln County Public Libraries Director, accepted a new position as Rapid City, South Dakota, Public Library Director. David Ellefsen, former Flathead County Library Director, accepted a new position with the Maricopa Library District in Arizona. Susan Long, former Medical Librarian at Kalispell Regional Hospital, accepted a new position as Medical Librarian at Multicare Health in Tacoma, WA. Arden Hill, retired director of the Malmstrom Air Force Base Library, passed away on June 9th from lung cancer.
The State Library has hired Bob Cooper to fill one of the Statewide Technology Librarian positions. Bob was a former employee of the State Library and the Montana library community welcomes him back. Judy Gunderson is the new director of Fallon County Library. Jacque Jakovac is the new librarian at Shodair Children's Hospital in Helena; Jacque was formerly a RN in inpatient obstetrics and recently earned a library masters degree. Heidi Sue Adams is the new medical librarian at Kalispell Regional Medical Center; Heidi was formerly a medical librarian in Philadelphia.
News
The Bozeman Public Library Foundation has received a $6,000 grant from the first Interstate BancSystem Foundation to create a collection of circulating cd-roms. The collection will include interactive, multi-media cdroms with a focus on informational, educational and creative programs for both adults and children. The grant money should allow for a core collection of about 100 titles to be available in late autumn. Former Montana State University librarian and Bozeman Public Library volunteer, Eva Tilton Hays, generously bequeathed over $80,000 to the Bozeman Public Library. The gift will be set aside for future improvements or expansion of the present building. The Public Libraries at Polson, Ronan, and Hot Springs each received $20,000 from an anonymous donor. The Harlowton Public Library and the Twin Bridges Public Library have both received grants from the Libri Foundation to help purchase children's books. The Great Falls Public Library received an anonymous gift of three brand new complete Hewlett Packard computer systems; and also received a commitment from an anonymous donor for the purchase of a "dream" bookmobile. The Jefferson County Library System received a $3600 grant from The Washington Foundation. This will allow them to expand their children's area, buy new shelving and add a puppet theatre. The Darby Public Library has received a Libri Grant sponsored by the Darby Civic Group. They also received a $60,000 computer grant in conjunction with the Darby Public Schools from U.S. West. They now have three public access computers and are connected to the Internet.The Bozeman Public Library co-hosted the first Community Internet Festival on Saturday, November 21 from 10 am until 5 pm at the Burns Telecommunications Center located at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Building on the campus of Montana State University-Bozeman.
Parmly Billings Public Library hosted an ALA sponsored traveling panel exhibit entitled "The Frontier in American Culture". It will be on display at the library from September 3-October 15.
The LSTA funded "Have Laptop Will Travel" computer lab, awarded to Missoula Public Library, has traveled to six Montana sites during the summer, accompanied by Montana State Library statewide technology librarians. The lab was used to present basic e-mail and internet training to a total of 74 workshop participants.
The Lewistown Public Library celebrated Teen Read Week by opening a new section for high school students.
Montana State University - Bozeman has been selected as the site for the LOEX-of-the-West 2000 conference. The conference dates will be June 6-11, 2000. The theme of the conference is "Creativity and the Art of Library Instruction."
The University of Montana - Missoula, Mansfield Library was awarded a $15,000 Student Computer Fee grant from the University of Montana to implement an Electronic Reserve system. The grant was used to purchase hardware, a server and a scanner, and software,"Eres," a commercial software package used by many university libraries for electronic reserve. The equipment was installed one week before the semester began and the first day that classes started two instructors already had course materials on the library web site (http://eres.lib.umt.edu/). A small pilot project is being run this fall semester with expanded services expected after that.
Montana Library Association (MLA) & The Montana State Library
The 1997-1998 Membership year found MLA with 700 members!"Making Certain It Goes On" is the title of the collected poetry of Montana's beloved, deceased poet Richard Hugo, and is also the theme of the next Montana Library Association's joint conference with that other nearby regional library association - Mountain Plains Library Association, June 13-16, 1999 at the beautiful Big Sky Resort in Big Sky, Montana (only 47 miles from Yellowstone National Park). Speakers include Terry Tempest Williams (the author of many nature books for both children and adults), and Dorothy Broderick (a librarian of 48 years and well known speaker on library issues). Over 150 conference program proposals were received by the conference planner. For more information about the conference consult the MLA homepage (http://www.mtlib.org).
The MLA OFFLINE Interest Group is holding a retreat, Feb.26-27, 1999, at the Bozeman Public Library. It will be a chance to learn, laugh, network, and ski with Montana librarians interested in library-related automation. Program and registration information will be posted soon on the MLA homepag. Meanwhile, further information can be obtained from Bruce Newell, bnewell@mtlib.org).
The 1999 Montana summer reading program will be called, "Dig up Montana Treasure--Read for Pleasure." The mascot will be a gopher but the theme will focus on Montana's wealth of archeological treasures such as dinosaurs, mammoths, gold and silver mines, ghost towns, and antiques.
The Montana State Library has put together a "Montana Library Calendar" on its website at: http://msl.state.mt.us/calendar.html.
EbscoHost was selected for a 2nd year as the statewide database for those libraries participating in the statewide cooperative database purchasing program. Governor Marc Racicot has supported the Montana State Library's budget request for $400,000 to partially fund a two-year license for a statewide full-text periodical database. The outcome of this request will be determined during the upcoming legislative session.
Interlibrary Loan workshops were held around the state this fall to help ILL personnel learn about the changes in ILL protocols developed by the MLA ILL Interest Group and supported by the Networking Task Force (the NTF is comprised of librarians and a library user, from all types of libraries and from all corners of the state and advises the Montana State Library Commission on matters pertaining to networking). For more information about the Montana ILL Protocols see: http://msl.state.mt.us/ill.html. Videotapes of two of the sessions are now available from the Montana State Library via ILL (appropriately enough!).
Legislation
It's been said that "nobody's safe when the Montana Legislator's are in session," and that time is almost upon us again. Montana Library Day is set for January 15, 1999, in the state capital, Helena. There will be booths set up in the Capitol Rotunda to demonstrate library resources. Formal invitations will be sent to legislators inviting them to visit the Rotunda that day.At their meeting in Bozeman on July 24th, the Montana Public Library Directors passed a resolution opposing the use of internet filters. The Public Library Directors do not recommend the use of internet filters and oppose attempts by the federal or state governments to require such use. They believe that decisions regarding the use of internet filters must remain at the local level. The MLA Academic and Special Library Division unanimously adopted a similar resolution on Internet Filters at their October retreat. At its October 23, 1998 meeting in Bozeman, the Board of Directors of the Montana Library Association unanimously adopted a similar statement including positions regarding mandated filtering and related intellectual freedom issues, to provide guidance to its Governmental Affairs Committee and Intellectual Freedom Committee for the 1999 Montana legislative session. The statement is listed below:
MLA Intellectual Freedom Statement for 1999 Legislative Session
The MLA Board opposes the following possible actions in the 1999 Legislature: 1) Requiring libraries to install filtering software on computers that offer Internet access; 2) Requiring libraries to install filtering software on computers that offer Internet access as a prerequisite for the receipt of state funding; 3) Amending or omitting libraries' protection under current law, MCA 45-8-206; 4) Any proposed legislation that restricts the ability of libraries to purchase and distribute legally-protected material.The MLA Board therefore directs the Government Affairs Committee and the Intellectual Freedom Committee to actively oppose such actions.
Voters in Park and Teton Counties approved a mill levy increase and establishment for library services, while voters in Roundup and Columbia Falls defeated an anti-pornography initiative that would have made it possible for librarians to be prosecuted. A mill levy increase was defeated in Miles City. Voters in Lewis and Clark County voted in favor for a library mill levy which will double the current budget. Lewis and Clark Library in Helena will be open 7 days a week, have new technology, a book budget of almost $300,000 a year for the next two years, pay off their debts and have a cash reserve. Mill levy increases were also successful for Bitterroot Public Library, Havre-Hill County Library, Anaconda, and Darby Public Library.
Montana voters approved a 6 mill levy for the university system (Legislative Referendum 113). This mill levy comes up for vote every 10 years and provides roughly 14 percent of the operating budgets of the Montana University System which over ten years amounts to more than $140 million. However, Montana voters also approved a constitutional initiative (CI-75) that requires all new taxes and fees to be approved by the voters. This throws the 6 mill levy (which must be formally approved by the legislature which meets in Jan.) into some doubt. Various groups including Montana public schools and the university system are considering a legal challenge of CI-75.