TBLC News

(Tampa) The Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC) has recognized four distinguished leaders with its “Library Champion Award” for the exceptional support for libraries. The 2008-09 honorees are: Dunedin Mayor Dave Eggers, Senator Mike Fasano (New Port Richey), Representative Rich Glorioso (Plant City), and Representative Will Weatherford (Wesley Chapel).

The TBLC Library Champion Awards are granted annually to recognize elected or appointed officials who have demonstrated exceptional support for and attention to libraries.

Dave Eggers, Mayor of Dunedin – “Mayor Dave Eggers always mentions the Library and keeps our budget concerns on the table. The Mayor attends most of our Library functions and best of all his wife, Becky Eggers, is the President of the Friends of the Library. Together they make a fantastic Library support team!” This is quite a testimonial from Anne Shepherd, Dunedin Public Library Director. In light of Florida cities’ serious budget challenges, TBLC is impressed by Mayor Eggers’ positive outlook and the way he sees the library’s importance in the lives of Dunedin residents.

Representative Will Weatherford – Mr. Weatherford participated in the Pasco County Public Library’s Leaders are Readers program and read with a group of young Pasco library users. Will was featured in a library Read poster supporting reading with children and in a video public service announcement encouraging parents to read with their children starting when children are infants. Will also works with Pasco County schools to encourage all children to read. Representative Weatherford was nominated by Linda Allen, Pasco County Public Library Director. TBLC admires Mr. Weatherford’s warmth and enthusiasm and his willingness to reach out to and inspire young learners.

Representative Rich Glorioso – Representative Glorioso from Plant City is one of those rare people who stay cool and calm no matter what, so it is a good thing he was Chairman of the Florida House of Representatives Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee last May during a very challenging session. Representative Glorioso was always receptive to calls and visits from the library community. He still smiled and was gracious after listening to our pitches and appeals for the umpteenth time.

When the shortage of dollars made it appear that library programs might lose their funding, Rep. Glorioso calmly listened, and calmly kept working to see to it that the programs were funded. Representative Glorioso was nominated by Bruton Memorial Library Director Anne Haywood. TBLC also commends Rich for his passion and commitment to working for young people at risk – that makes him two times a Champion in our eyes!

Senator Mike Fasano – Senator Fasano has so consistently saved the day for Florida libraries that the Florida library community should call him Mr. Library. As Chairman of the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee for a number of years, Senator Fasano has often made the critical difference. This year, when funding was particularly tight in Tallahassee and it looked like we might lose state funding for libraries, Senator Fasano fought fiercely to keep it in the budget in the face of powerful forces and prevailed. Mike and his staff are always gracious and pleasant to work with, regardless of the hour and the craziness going on around them. Senator Fasano was nominated by Charlie Parker, TBLC Executive Director. Like the residents of his district, TBLC appreciates how no one in the Florida legislature works harder for what he believes in than Senator Fasano.

The Tampa Bay Library Consortium is a non profit multi-type library cooperative comprising 100 member libraries serving 13 west central Florida counties. The counties served are Citrus, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Manatee, Okeechobee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota. TBLC is supported by funding from local member dues and fees, state Library Cooperative Aid Grants and federal Library Services and Technology Act Grants. For more information, log on to www.tblc.org.

Friday, November 6, 2009
8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Tampa Bay History Center
801 Old Water Street
Tampa, FL 33602
Registration – $30
Please register at http://www.tblc.org/training/index.php

We are thrilled to announce that this year’s TBLC Annual Meeting will be held at the Tampa Bay History Center – a wonderful new facility housing a very exciting and re-energized regional cultural program. The facility is dazzling – and the organization is a model for how to do collaboration right.

We are also thrilled to announce that Susan Benton will be the keynote speaker at this year’s annual meeting.

Susan was recently named CEO of the Urban Libraries Council. Before taking the ULC position, Susan was Research, Development and Strategic Partners Executive at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).

Susan has a strong background with sustainable communities, community building, and civic engagement. While at ICMA, Susan began the ICMA Local Government and Public Libraries Partnership Initiative. The initiative developed an approach based around the idea of building stronger libraries by connecting them more closely with communities’ needs and service priorities. A significant aspect of this initiative involved building closer working relationships between city and county managers. Seminole Community Library Director Michael Bryan and the City of Seminole City Manager were both involved in that initiative.

Susan’s work with the Local Government and Public Libraries Partnership Initiative then led to a project with the Gates Foundation — the Public Library Innovation Grant Program. The Gates grant program drew over 550 applications, including many from Florida and several from the TBLC area.

Susan’s background and experience are particularly valuable in these times when libraries are struggling to convince funders of necessity to fund libraries when all types of services are being cut back and reduced.

Look for further announcements in the days ahead!

The University of Wisconsin-Madison says a new agreement with Google will expand public access to its library collection.

The university says readers across the country will be able to preview its books for free and buy access to the full texts online.

In addition, universities, colleges and public libraries will be able to offer access to their students through subscriptions.

Every public and university library will also receive one license to provide free online viewing of millions of books at designated computers.

The new agreement revises a deal struck between UW-Madison and Google in 2006. So far, more than 200,000 works have been digitized.

This article is courtesy of salon.com.

For more information, visit the UW-Madison news website.

Three winners of the 2009 Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Awards were announced on April 15. Representing the best examples of innovative thinking in resource sharing, the award recipients include the Orlando Memory Project, Rapid ILL and Kentucky Libraries Unbound.

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative Innovation Awards honor each of these organizations for improving patrons’ access to library information through resource sharing. Each award winner receives a $1,000 cash award and will be recognized for their resource sharing efforts on May 13 at the Rethinking Resource Sharing Forum 2009, in Dublin, Ohio.

Funding for the 2009 Innovation Awards is provided by the Alliance of Library Service Networks, a group of U.S. independent regional networks that includes Amigos, BCR, FEDLINK, ILLINET, INCOLSA, MINITEX, MLC, MLNC, NELINET, Nylink, OHIONET, Lyrasis and WiLS. The Nebraska Library Commission is also a member. OCLC and BCR provide on-going support for the initiative.

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative is an ad hoc group that advocates for a complete rethink of the way libraries conduct resource sharing in the context of the global Internet revolution and all of the developments that have arisen from that. The group is advocating for a revolution in the way libraries conduct resource sharing.

This post courtesy of BCR.

Libraries Offer Free Relief from Tough Times

This is just a reminder asking you to let us know if your libraries or staff experience damage from Tropical Storm Fay, particularly if assistance is needed or you need to communicate to the library community. Email cparker@tblc.org or call (813) 622-8252 (ext. 222) if you have anything to report.

We’re hoping that our member libraries, their staff, and our region make it through this uneventfully.

Charlie

By Carl Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: April 26, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — Read all about it! The Pasco County Library System has been named Library of the Year by the Florida Library Association.

Libraries Director Linda Allen said the statewide honor recognizes how far the libraries here have come since she came on board 21 years ago.

Allen credited her hard-working staff for bringing the award to Pasco. “It didn’t have anything to do with me. It was them.”

Even during the Internet age, the Pasco libraries continue to expand, Allen emphasized. Patrons often compliment the varied programs, she said.

“All our indicators are way up this year,” Allen said. Overall circulation is up 4 percent over last year. Internet use on library computers alone is up 19 percent. “Program attendance is way up.” Computer classes typically are full.

This is the second time a library in Pasco County has won Library of the Year honors from the FLA. The New Port Richey Public Library was named the first winner of the award, in 2006.

Innovative programming for children, teens, and adults helped clinch this year’s award for Pasco County libraries, Allen said.

Allen cited programs such as Battle of the Bands XI, the Children’s Adaptive Toy Collection, for special-needs children, and literary speed dating for reading lovers, an innovative adult reading club program. Downloadable books and classical music are proving popular, she said.

The library system has turned a page since its humble origins, Allen recalled.

When Allen came here, in 1987, “there was no library system,” she recalled. “There were four very, very small libraries pretty much operating independently.”

Without centralized ordering of books, staff at one library branch had no way of knowing what books another branch stocked. Most books had been donated, so many tomes were old and out of date, she remembers. Computers were unheard of at a library.

“I thought this would look good on my resume,” Allen said about accepting a job here in 1987, never intending to stay long.

“I forgot to leave,” Allen said with a chuckle after 21 years with Pasco libraries. “That’s an indication of how much fun it is to work here.”

Eventually, the Pasco Library System grew, thanks in large part of a voter-approved bond issue that funded library construction.

Now, however, Allen is bracing for possible budget cuts of about 10 percent. The spending cuts are a result of recent state measures intended to reduce local government property taxes.

As a result, “Nothing is set in stone yet,” Allen said.

Attrition of staff from retirements is the first step toward tightening the library budget belt. Five positions are frozen now, Allen said.

She has no doubts that Pasco libraries will adapt and endure.

Allen and Assistant Libraries Director Stephen Kershner picked up the award last night at the Florida Library Association annual conference, in St. Petersburg.

In the near future, Charles Parker, executive director of the Tampa Bay Library Consortium and the president of the state association, will visit Pasco County to make a presentation, Allen said.