PNLA Quarterly, Vol. 63 No.2 Winter 1999
MONTANA Annual Report July 1998
Gloria Langstaff, Montana Representative
The newly elected Montana representative to PNLA is Barry Brown, Science Librarian at the University of Montana--Missoula. His E-mail address is: barry@selway.umt.edu. He will begin his duties as representative at the
PNLA board meeting August 15th, immediately following the Sun Valley conference. It will be a smooth transition, as Barry is currently the Second Vice-President on the PNLA board, with duties of overseeing membership and interest groups.The Montana Library Association's officers and and some of the new board members are President William (Bill) Cochran, director of the Parmly Billings Public Library, Billings; Vice President/President Elect Bruce Newell, Public & Network Services Librarian, Lewis & Clark Public Library, Helena; Secretary Alice Meister, director of the Bozeman Public Library; PNLA Representative Barry Brown; MPLA Representative Paula Duffy, Government Documents Librarian, Montana State University-Billings; and Director at Large (West) Bette Ammon, director of the Missoula Public Library.
Future MLA annual conferences are: 1999 -- Big Sky/Joint MLA & MPLA, June 13-16; 2000 -- Billings, April 26-29; 2001 -- Kalispell, April 25-28; 2002 -- Great Falls, April 24-27
Montana libraries have been faring well this past year. Teton County passed an initiative to form joint city-county libraries, after one year without any legally established libraries. Several locations again voted down "harmful to minors" legislation. A mill levy increase campaign was successful for the Livingston-Park County Public Library.
Under the energetic leadership of State Librarian, Karen Strege, the public library trustees' manual is being revised and statewide trustee workshopsare being planned. After a year of input, a document of standards for public libraries is being presented to the State Library Commission for approval. This is the second year of coordinating the purchase of databases for all types of libraries on a statewide basis.
The past two years have been rewarding for me as the Montana representative. I will continue to enthusiastically encourage Montana librarians to become involved in PNLA. The opportunity to meet with regional/international librarians without local state/provincial politics makes this networking between librarians unique.