When I mention the "TIF" Board in conversation, the unwary will politely ask what it stands for, perhaps hoping to brush up on their acronyms. "Telecommuni-cations Infrastructure Fund" Board elicits blank stares, and I can see their eyes start to glaze over as they recognize what must be yet another faceless government bureaucracy. Struggling to help them connect, I mention that it's funded by one of the tiny charges on one's cell phone bill. The light dawns then quickly fades. No one understands those phone bills.
This article about TIF had its genesis in a leisurely Friday late afternoon exercise. Perhaps you are like me and treasure the peace and tranquility that descends on your library after 5 p.m. at the end of the week when most other staff members have left for the weekend. One has a bit of time to explore, maybe check out a few websites, and send those emails that never quite made it out during the week. On this particular Friday afternoon, I was mulling over the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) Board and its role in assisting libraries. As chair of the TIF Library Working Group, I wondered about the visible impact of TIF funding. I wondered how many librarians actually knew about TIF's overall mission and their work for the library community.
How could a Texas state agency that is giving away $1.5 billion dollars to public schools, libraries, higher education, and telemedicine over 10 years possibly need increased visibility? I rounded up the last five years of Texas Library Journal and absentmindedly flipped pages checking the tables of contents. I became obsessed - examining every page from the last five years. I next moved on to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission newsletter, Library Developments. I left about 7:30 p.m. to pick up the traditional Friday night pizza after searching for some major recent article detailing TIF's direct impact on the library community.
The next week I called up the folks at TLA to tell them of my discovery of a dearth of recent articles on TIF. As always, they were gracious and assured me that an article on the TIF Board was a great idea. I rested easy. Weeks passed. While skimming my email, I noticed some ominous words: "By now you may suspect." I wasn't the least bit suspicious. I am terribly naive. And consequently, I am reporting now on TIF's impact over the last five years and, to a large extent, hoping to address the dearth of "progress reports" I discovered several months back. While the impetus for taking the opportunity to document TIF's achievements came somewhat slowly, this midpoint assessment comes at a timely juncture of proposals and projects that will have a long lasting influence on the development of library services in Texas during the coming years.
The TIF Board was created by the Public Utility Regulatory Act of 1995 and was mandated to award $1.5 billion in grants over 10 years. As of April 2000, it has awarded $341 million in grants to its four constituent groups (i.e., public schools, higher education, libraries, and not-for-profit healthcare facilities) specified in Sec. 3.606 of HB 2128. TIF also has a special mandate to reach rural, remote, and economically disadvantaged populations. Although TIF funds both competitive and noncompetitive grants, library grants are noncompetitive and concentrate on Internet connectivity, technology advancement, and distance learning. In addition to "wires and boxes," TIF has stressed training and sustainability to ensure the future viability of its investment.
In reviewing the history of TIF over the last five years and looking forward to the future, one cannot help but be struck by the foresight of those among us who passed and lobbied for this legislation and of the TIF Board members and TIF staff who created a new agency from scratch. On January 12, 1996, Joe McCord, director of libraries at the University of Houston at Clear Lake, testified before the TIF Board and detailed the state of library connectivity in Texas. He laid out principles that guided librarians in their work to provide information services and that should guide TIF in its undertaking of the same directive. Four and a half years later (and with all the corresponding changes in technology that have occurred since), Joe McCord's expression of that vision is still an amazingly prescient view of where we need to go and what our priorities should be. Above all, he pointed to the need for a comprehensive and robust information infrastructure. We have made a lot of progress, but there is still a lot that we need to do.
TIF has been a tremendous boon to Texas libraries. During the last four and
a half years, public libraries have received $20 million in funding. While there
have been ups and downs in the process of building a strong working relationship
between TIF and its primary constituent groups, the TIF Board has allocated
hundreds of millions of dollars. Despite this boon, libraries have sometimes
missed opportunities and left money on the table. Of over 190 libraries that
indicated an interest in applying for an LB 4 grant by submitting a letter of
intent in 1999, for example, only 126 actually submitted a grant proposal for
funding.
As it approaches its midpoint, the TIF Board is continuing its work in providing a strong telecommunications infrastructure and is also looking at new ways to fulfill the mandate set out in its enabling legislation. On April 7, 2000, the TIF Board took a major step toward this goal by approving funding for a new collaboration with the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Peggy Rudd, Texas State Librarian, and Michael Piper's Resource Sharing team at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission developed an exciting content, training, and library resource sharing initiative, "Library of Texas," that will receive TIF funding.
In late February of this year, the Texas State Library sponsored a Texshare Strategic Planning retreat attended by 30 library leaders from across the state. The goal was the creation of a vision statement for library resource sharing across Texas. Representatives from public libraries, academic libraries, medical libraries, school libraries, TSLAC, TLA, and others met to discuss needs and prepare a vision statement. The product of that fruitful meeting laid the groundwork for the State Library's proposal.
On March 10, 2000, Ms. Rudd spoke to the TIF Board and outlined her vision for libraries and resource sharing for the residents of Texas and floated a tentative price tag to fulfill this vision for the libraries of Texas. Within weeks, a fully fleshed out final draft proposal was presented to the TIF Library Advisory Subcommittee for action on April 5, 2000. At its April 7th meeting, the TIF Board approved partial funding for two years of the "Library of Texas."
The highlight of this year's TLA conference for me was Marian Wright Edelman's inspiring speech analyzing our society, our communities, and the needs of children. Approaching 50, I'm a pretty tough audience, but I returned home with copies of her book Lanterns, A Memoir of Mentors wondering momentarily if all this technology was really relevant and worth all the trouble.
Upon even a little reflection, we realize that for our libraries and communities to thrive and grow we must incorporate the latest technology into the services we offer our users. Internet technology revitalizes our libraries, attracts a new class of users, and explodes the quantity of information we can offer our clientele no matter the location or wealth of our individual libraries. Access to the Internet in our libraries helps bridge the "digital divide" that threatens to segment our society further.
TIF has provided the "wires and boxes" and training to enable hundreds of Texas libraries to access the Internet with robust connectivity and state of the art equipment. With TIF's recent funding of the "Library of Texas" proposal, relevant and authoritative content, training, and new resource sharing initiatives will soon be in place for all the residents of Texas.
We must now mentor libraries that still lack sufficiently robust public access Internet connectivity so that they too can share in the vision of the "Library of Texas." We must commit to sustaining what TIF has funded for our libraries and communities. We must establish training programs and educate our constituents in effective Internet use. We must exercise creative leadership so that Texas libraries receive the maximum benefit in the remaining five years of the TIF legislation.
Eileen Shocket is the chief librarian at the Scarborough-Phillips Library at St. Edward's University and is the chair of the TIF Library Working Group.
These TIF grants represent the most recent grant opportunities designed to help Texas communities. It is anticipated that these grants will be awarded by August 31, 2000. Check the TIF Board web page or call TIF directly for the latest information and upcoming grant opportunities.
(excerpted)
The proposed Library of Texas project will build on previous TIF grants by providing content, the key element in a world-class telecommunications system that benefits all Texans. By transcending geographic and economic barriers, it will also reinforce TSLAC services such as TexShare, the premier example of statewide interlibrary collaboration in Texas.
In this four-year project, the State Library will collaborate with TIF to build the Library of Texas, which will deliver information when, where, and how Texans want it. A broad range of information services will be provided to school children, parents, business owners, and others across Texas, including:
The Library of Texas supports TIF's mission by providing Texans with new ways to acquire and use information; by increasing the range of information resources available to Texans; and by preparing Texas children for the future. It also supports the Vision Statement for Library Resource Sharing in Texas, which was written recently by representatives from academic, public, and school libraries. A copy of the Vision Statement is included with this document.
By providing collections and services to supplement resources in 600 libraries statewide, this project will empower even the smallest, most rural libraries to serve as responsive, independent participants in a statewide Library of Texas.
The complete version of the Library of Texas Project can be found at: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/lot.