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How Libraries Fared in the
76th Legislature
The 76th Session of the
Texas Legislature has concluded,
leaving TLA members to assess how libraries fared. By all accounts, the 1999
session was a strong one for libraries. The Legislature found new money for
school library materials purchases and doubled the funding for TexShare. All
legislation which TLA officially supported was passed, as were a number of other
bills which will benefit libraries. Like many other interest groups, however,
the library community's plans for diverting a larger portion of the famous surplus
to its programs evaporated as big ticket items such as teacher pay raises, property
tax relief, and state employee pay raises took most of the extra money. With
this in mind, it is perhaps even more impressive that certain projects like
TexShare and school library materials aid, received new money.
Here's a summary of library related legislation in the
76th session:
The TSLAC budget saw much more substantial increases than last session, including:
The agency also received the authority to increase the state librarian's salary to $85,000, an important gain that will help in recruiting a new director to replace Dr. Robert Martin who is leaving the agency in September. Despite support from the Governor and First Lady, however, TLA was unsuccessful in its efforts to fund Read for Your Life, an increase of $2 million per year for the Texas Library System.
The TEA budget includes $1.85 million for first-ever funding for school library materials. This amount will flow to schools that meet as yet undetermined criteria from the Texas Public School Standards, and will be given in the form of a 25 percent match for local library materials expenditures.
Thanks to HB 1433 by Rep. Bob Hunter (Senate sponsor: Senator Eddie Lucio), which was signed into law by Governor Bush on May 14, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission will be able to bring public and academic libraries together under a single banner of resource sharing called TexShare. This will allow the program to more effectively serve the needs of the patrons of both types of libraries. The TSLAC is expected to move forward this summer with appointments to the expanded TexShare board.
There is good news and bad news. The good news is that the SB 691 by Sen. Eddie Lucio (House sponsor: Rep. Jim Pitts) has passed, providing the statutory authority to establish an endowment fund to create direct aid to Texas public libraries. The bad news is that there is no money in the fund. The valiant efforts of TLA members to find even a nominal appropriation met with a deaf ear in the budget-writing committees. Certainly funding of this project will be a high priority for the association next session.
The Legislature passed HB 1618 by Rep. Terry Keel to expand application of the library district law to allow voters in any county in the state to approve districts and to include territory served by municipal libraries upon the approval of the municipality. These changes to the law will increase from 14 to 70 the number of places in the state that can hold district elections.
Two bills by Sen. Chris Harris have passed, allowing college and university libraries greater flexibility in how they purchase materials. SB 481 allows prepayments for library materials using HEAF funds, while SB 1363 allows community colleges to purchase materials according to the same rulesand exemptionsthat apply to all other academic libraries.
SB 4 by Senator Teel Bivins includes a raise of $3,000 for school librarians as well as classroom teachers. Another bill also raises by 10 percent the factor used to calculate retirement benefits for teachers and librarians.
TLA supported two license plate bills that will support public and school library projects. HB 1227 by Rep. Jesse Jones will create a new license plate the proceeds from which are designated for support of public library based literacy and reading programs. HB 3551 by Rep. Helen Giddings will redirect proceeds from the Read Succeed license plate to school library programs. Both bills passed.
Other bills TLA followed:
HB 173 by Rep. Henry Cuellar, that would have provided free tuition to the children of experienced classroom teachers and librariansdied in committee.
HB 178 by Rep. Domingo Garcia, that would have required computers sold in Texas to have filtering software on the machinedied in committee.
HB 184 by Rep. John Longoria, that would require school facilitiesincluding librariesto remain open after hoursdied in committee.
HB 1507 by Rep. Steve Wolens, to exempt legal self-help books from the definition of the unauthorized practice of lawpassed.
The Texas Library Association Council passed several resolutions on April 23, the closing day of the 1999 Annual Conference, including a resolution on the use of Internet filtering software in libraries and pending federal legislation on database protections.
The filtering resolution, forwarded to the council from the Intellectual Freedom Committee, states that "the Texas Library Association finds the use of filtering software limits the opportunity for citizens to fully participate in speech via the Internet in which it is their constitutional right to participate without government intrusion," and concludes by stating that "the use of filtering software cannot be consistent with a library mission of open access to information."
The Council also passed a resolution in support of the development of federal database protection legislation that will continue to ensure that libraries enjoy fair use access to government information in electronic formats.
Another resolution adopted "Libraries: An American Value," a policy statement of the American Library Association, as an official policy of the Texas Library Association. This document states a "contract" between libraries and the public, affirming such principles as the protection of confidentiality, the responsibility of parents to guide children's use of the library, and the "rights of individuals to express their opinions about library resources and services."
The TLA Council also approved resolutions to do the following:
The raffle of an original illustration by Rosemary Wells at the TLA Annual Conference raised over $8,000 toward the endowment of a fund to provide relief for Texas libraries damaged by disasters such as floods, tornadoes, and fires. For a five-dollar chance, TLA attendees vied to acquire Wells's whimsical drawing of two bears dancing with gleeful abandon. The winning ticket was held by Nancy F. Shanafelt, catalog librarian at McMurry University in Abilene. Nancy announced almost immediately her intention to donate the work to the National Center for Children's Book Illustration which happens to be located in Abilene. Rosemary Wells has also donated to TLA a series of 20 other illustrations to be auctioned to benefit the disaster relief fund.
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