TLA Home Page Robert S. Martin
The mission of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission is to ensure that all Texans have the library resources and services, the archives and records, and the government information that they need to be educated and informed, in order for them to lead productive lives and participate effectively in civic affairs.
Citizens of any democratic society must be educated and informed for that society to survive and succeed. As essential tools for providing education and information to the people, libraries and archives are key institutions within our society. Without strong libraries and archives, democracy cannot flourish.
Libraries provide educational opportunities that complement, expand and enhance the formal educational structures of schools and colleges, ranging from pre-school literacy initiatives, to adult literacy programs, to continuing education for life-long learners. Libraries also serve as the principal gateway to information services for most of our citizens, and as the sole information safety net for many.
Archives serve a public trust, safeguarding the records on which the people of a democracy depend for the continuity, accountability, and credibility of their public institutions. Open, accessible records are essential for open, accessible government. Archives enable the people to inspect for themselves the record of what government has done. They enable officials and agencies to review their actions and helps citizens hold them accountable. They ensure continuing access to essential evidence that documents the rights of citizens, the actions of governmental officials, and the history and heritage of Texas.
We occasionally hear the comment "we don't need libraries anymore– everything is on the Internet." In fact, however, libraries are buying and circulating more books than ever before, and there is no indication that the demand for traditional books in libraries is going to diminish any time in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, libraries have had to adapt to the new electronic environment, and to provide access to a dramatically increasing array of digital products and services. This means acquiring equipment, providing for telecommunications costs, hiring new staff– staff with often very different talents, aptitudes, education and salaries from their traditional coworkers-- all with static or even shrinking resources. This has placed an incredible strain on the ability of libraries to keep up.
Besides simply needing more FTE to keep up with increasing workload, we face another serious problem in staffing: we are finding that we are unable to recruit and retain qualified individuals to fill the positions that we do have. As this statement is written, 31 of our 206.5 authorized positions are vacant. These are not "phantom positions"– we are making every effort to recruit qualified individuals to fill them. Most of these vacancies result from resignations received within the past 60 days. And in the previous two months we have filled a similar number of positions. The result of this turnover is that we are constantly expending our limited human resources to recruit and train new staff, and our ability to achieve our goals is dramatically impaired.
Why are people leaving? There are of course as many reasons for turnover as there are individuals leaving, but from the exit questionnaires that I routinely review, I can assert with confidence that the overwhelming reason reduces to money: we simply can not pay competitive salaries, especially for the specialized technical positions that we have throughout the agency. The suggested adjustments in the Classification Schedules recommended by the State Auditor's Classification Office would, if implemented, make a significant improvement in this situation.
Some of the critical issues that the Library and Archives Commission must address in the next biennium include: