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TLA's greatest lobbying assetits membersarrived at the Capitol in impressive numbers to describe to their legislators the funding crisis in Texas libraries and to suggest ways to correct the situation. Over 300 librarians and library supporters attended the 1999 TLA Legislative Day held February 23 with most also attending briefing sessions the day before. In those briefing sessions, delegates and delegate leaders learned more about the issues that they would carry forward to their elected officials including funding for projects of the State Library and Archives Commission, TexShare, amending the library district law, and funding for direct aid to school and public libraries.
$1.85 million for school library materials
Though the gains for libraries will not be known until the Legislature adjourns at the end of May, Legislative Day brought some immediate strategic gains for the TLA legislative agenda. Most notably, TLA staff and members learned on Legislative Day that a source of funds has been identified to fund a rider to be introduced by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) to provide first-ever dedicated funds for school library materials. Working closely with the staff of the Texas Education Agency, $1.85 million was found to fund direct improvements in school library collections. This figure, while considerably less than the $7.6 million endorsed by TLA, will be relatively secure as the budget process moves forward and is expected to grow in future years.
Sponsors for the Texas Public Library Fund
Another gain of Legislative Day is that the day proved to be a catalyst for the introduction of legislation to create the Texas Public Library Fund, a permanent endowment fund the interest from which would be used to establish direct aid to Texas public libraries. Negotiations prior to Legislative Day resulted in the introduction on February 22 of HB1673 by Representatives Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie) and Sherri Greenberg (D-Austin) to establish the fund. Meetings by members at Legislative Day produced a sponsor for a companion, SB671, filed by Senator Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville) on February 25 (at the same time, Senator Lucio also filed SB672, the senate companion for the bill to amend the TexShare statute to allow participation by public libraries). While TLA is grateful to have these bills filed, they are enabling legislation only and do not identify a specific source of funding for the Fund. A separate rider appropriation request has been filed by Senator Lucio's office and TLA members are sending postcards and letters to their senators and representatives as well as the chairs of the Senate Finance (Sen. Bill Ratliff) and the House Appropriations Committee (Rep. Rob Junell).
District bill sent to favorable committee
Another modest but strategically important gain of Legislative Day was the routing of the bill to amend the public library district law, HB1618 by Reps. Keel (R-Austin) and Hunter (R-Abilene), to the House Committee on State Federal and International Relations. This committee, chaired by Rep. Hunter, is the oversight committee for the State Library and Archives Commission's budget and is very knowledgeable about and friendly toward bills to improve the status of the state's libraries. This committee referral is considered a success because last session the bill establishing districts was heard in a less friendly committee.
Eat, drink, and lobby
The 1999 Legislative Day ended with a very successful reception held at the historic Scottish Rite Temple at 18th and Lavaca just three blocks from the Capitol. The reception was attended by over 25 legislators or their staff members and featured displays of issues pertaining to Texas academic, public, school, and special libraries as well as the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The displays showed the current status of these library types and why additional funding is needed. The Legislative Day reception is a TLA tradition that allows attendees an opportunity to mingle with their elected officials in a more relaxed atmosphere.
The Texas Library Association is a named co-plaintiff in lawsuit filed by Nolo Press intended to curtail an anticipated legal action against Nolo, a leading publisher of legal self-help books and software. The TLA Executive Board decided at their meeting of February 24 to join Nolo when it became obvious that the publisher would likely be sued for the "unauthorized practice of law" by a group empanelled by the Texas Supreme Court. The Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) Committee has been systematically suing the publishers of legal self-help books because their creators are not licensed to practice law in Texas. In January, U.S. District Court Judge Barefoot Sanders issued an opinion that one such publicationthe Quicken Family Lawyer published by Parsons Technology, Inc.did indeed constitute the unauthorized practice of law.
The Sanders decision greatly increased the likelihood that the UPL Committee would turn its attention to Nolo Press. Nolo publishes over 150 titles that are found widely in Texas public and academic libraries. Nolo, based in Berkeley California, employees a number of lawyers, but none are licensed to practice law in Texas. Nolo filed its suit in early March with TLA as a co-plaintiff.
TLA's interest in the Nolo lawsuit is based on philosophical and practical concerns. With the Parsons case and an earlier judgement against another small publisher in the early 90s, the UPL Committee is building a legal precedent that would support the banning of an entire class of materials on a statewide basis, creating a materials challenge on a level that may be unprecedented in scope. On a practical basis, TLA would like to protect the ability of libraries to offer such legal self-help books as part of their collections. It is not clear how judicial injunctions against the sale of such books in Texas would effect copies already in libraries, but, in any case, libraries would no longer be able to purchase copies of the books in Texas or from any book jobber doing business in Texas.
This story may also have a legislative outcome. Representative Steve Wolens (D-Dallas) has filed a bill to exempt legal self-help publications from the definition of the unauthorized practice of law.
Sandra Cisneros
--noted author and poet, recorded a radio public service announcement for the Texas Library Association's Read for Your Life media campaign. The PSA, which Ms. Cisneros wrote in Spanish, speaks of the role of libraries in shaping her life and urges others to find their own "casa de sueños" (house of dreams) at the library. In the studio the day of the recording, Ms. Cisneros commented to TLA staff that, as a child, the dream of writing followed the dream of seeing her name in the library card catalog. The PSA was distributed to approximately 90 Spanish-language radio stations in March.
Keep those cards and letters coming in
In addition to its efforts to secure increased funding for such library initiatives as TexShare, public school library funding, and funding for the Texas Library System, TLA has launched a drive to pass and fund the Texas Public Library Fund, a permanent endowment fund the revenue from which would flow to Texas public libraries in the form of direct aid. TLA members and staff close to the association's legislative program believe the legislation to establish the fund will probably pass; however, without a major effort from TLA members, funding for the endowment is far from secure.
Despite a surplus which the Texas Comptroller has set at somewhere between four and six million dollars, the budget-writing committees in the Legislature declared the money "spent" even before the session got underway. This is due in part to such big-ticket priorities as teacher and state employee pay raises, education spending in the Governor's budget, and property tax relief.
But Texas public librarians believe that funding the state's public libraries should also be a priority. Therefore, many are sending letters, distributing post cards to library patrons, and asking their city councils to pass resolutions supporting the public library fund. While it is unlikely that the Fund will receive the kind of funding in the current legislative session that it needs to provide significant support to Texas public libraries, any funding will be welcome as a seeding of the endowment to aid in future sessions and with private donors.
What can you do to "fund the Fund?"You have three ways to support the TLA campaign to fund the Fund:
Write letters. Letters from you, your board members, your patrons, friends, and family to your senator and representative are an extremely effective way of communicating your concerns that the Texas Legislature pass legislation to create the Texas Public Library Fund and then follow through with funding. These letters can also be sent to the chair of the House Appropriations Committee (Representative Rob Junell) and the Senate Finance Committee (Senator Bill Ratliff). A sample letter can be found on the Texas Library Association web page (www.txla.org, select "Government Affairs"), but your letter will be much stronger the more localized and personal you make it.
Participate in the yellow postcard drive. TLA has created a master template for postcards urging legislators to support the Fund. Again, each person would send four pre-addressed postcards: one each to their senator and representative, one to House Appropriations Committee Chair Rob Junell, and one to Senate Finance Committee Chair Rob Junell. The postcards can be distributed to any library supporter in your community at the library or elsewhere and the more postcards that return to the Capitol, the more effective the drive will be. The template can be downloaded from the TLA web page and reproduced, but one thing to remembercopy the postcards on bright yellow card stock! If all the postcards are the same color and will be easily recognized and counted.
Ask your city council or county commission to pass a resolution of support. About a dozen cities and counties in Texas have already passed resolutions supporting the fund. Each resolution that is passed and sent to Austin increases our chances of funding the Fund. Again, a sample resolution can be found on the TLA web page. Once you have passed the resolution, copies should be sent to your legislators and to the chairs of the budget committees, preferably from your mayor, a council member, or your city manager. (Please also send a copy to the TLA office.)
Four Texas Spectrum
Scholars plan their future
Four students who received Spectrum Scholarships from the American Library Associationand supplemented by funds from the Texas Library Associationare now attending library school at Texas institutions. They are: Graciela Berlanga-Cortez in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University; Myra Michele Brown, who is enrolled in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science of the University of Texas via the UT El Paso campus; Valerie L. Charbeneau, who is enrolled in the library school at the University of Texas at Austin; and Maria Garcia, who is working toward her master's at Texas Woman's University.
The Spectrum Scholarship program was conceived by ALA as a technique for recruiting to the profession of librarianship persons who represent the cultural diversity which libraries serve in our communities across the United States. But these four enterprising and energetic students bring more than just their cultural backgrounds to their graduate careers. All have experiences in library work and high hopes for their future in the profession, with distinct plans for what type of library they will work in and what they will accomplish.
Graciela
Berlanga-Cortez
was born in Valle Hermosa, Mexico, where she lived until she was eight, when
her family moved to Texas. Her father, a native of Weslaco, Texas, inspired
in Graciela a love of reading at an early age. This love of reading has stayed
with Graciela throughout her life and has motivated her many endeavors and interests
including a stint as manager of the Migrant Education Project for the Dallas
Independent School District where she developed a cooperative project with Dallas
Public Library Director Ramiro Salazar to take migrant families on customized,
guided tours of the public libraries in Dallas. About those tours of the libraries,
she comments that these families "learned a basic knowledge we often take
for granted and assume everyone already knows."
Graciela has already served as a president and founding member of the Río Trinidad, the Dallas area chapter of REFORMA, and is a member of several professional library and education associations. She intends to complete her master's from TWU in 2000 and would like to work in a public or academic library in public service or special collections.
Myra
Michele Brown
was born in Washington, D.C. and attended public school in the District of Columbia.
She later went on to take a bachelor's in political science from Ohio Wesleyan
University and attended a year of law school at Drake University in Des Moines.
Myra feels she is not yet able to make "informed decisions" about
her career; however, she goes on to say that she is interested in preservation,
law librarianship, and reference work. She now lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico,
where she is an ardent patron of her local public library. Myra comments, "I
want to keep myself open as I learn about the profession so I can understand
my potential strengths as a librarian."
Valerie L. Charbeneau
has turned to librarianship from a career in performing arts. Valerie was raised in California, the eldest of four children of Robert and Marlene Lopez, but left school early with a GED and began a study dance and the theater arts that lead her to the Martha Graham School of Modern Dance and to work for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. Valerie and her husband Michael Charbenau and son Dane moved to Texas in 1984 and she returned to school in 1987, earning a bachelor's in Education at UT San Antonio. She taught elementary school for seven years and this year began a position as librarian at the Colby Glass Elementary School in the Northside Independent School District.
Maria
Z. Garcia
is a native of El Paso, but relocated to Dallas in 1985. Since 1988, Maria has
worked in several libraries including as a page and clerk at the Balch Springs
Public Library and as a library assistant at the St. Paul Medical Library. In
1992, Maria joined the staff of the Dallas Public Library where she worked first
as a library associate before taking on increased responsibilities as supervisor
in the Selection Services section, and, this year, as an information analyst
in the Automation Services department. Maria comments that her "main interest
lies in public libraries with an emphasis in technical services and automation."