Maintenance of Effort Bill to Get a Hearing

Rep. Mark Gottlieb's bill, AB-483, will get a hearing before the Assembly Committee on Urban and Local Affairs next Tuesday, August 9, 1:00 p.m. in the North Hearing Room of the State Capitol in Madison. WLA opposes this bill and encourages members who are constituents of the committee members to urge them not to support it. Under Wisconsin Statutes 43.15 (4)(c), local libraries must meet several requirements of system membership, including that the local library be funded at a level that is not lower than the average funding for the previous three years. This requirement is commonly referred to as maintenance of effort (MOE). All local public libraries receive valuable services as a result of their voluntary membership in one of 17 regional public library systems. Elimination of the MOE would damage the valuable resource sharing network established through these systems.

While Rep. Gottlieb has suggested a compromise that would require library performance standards in lieu of MOE, an amendment has not been introduced. While WLA is generally in favor of library standards if they help achieve a higher quality of library service, many of our members are quite concerned about the difficulty of developing meaningful standards statewide. Right now, only four counties have adopted such standards.

Along with WLA, AFSCME and the Council on Library and Network Development (COLAND) have taken positions against the bill. The Wisconsin Counties Association and the League of Municipalities have stated support for the bill.

Two organizations oppose SB-258 on constitutional grounds

The Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) and The Media Coalition, Inc. have each issued a memorandum opposing SB-258. Both organizations state that the bill barring public libraries from lending or renting R-rated movies to minors without the consent of a parent or guardian would likely be found unconstitutional. The Media Coalition says, "Courts in nine different states have ruled it unconstitutional either to enforce the MPAA's rating system or to financially punish a movie that carries specific rating designations." MPAA elaborates that attempts to incorporate voluntary ratings into state and local law have been consistently found unconstitutional because "they unlawfully delegate legislative power to a private association."

MPAA also states that keeping the ratings voluntary is part of their usefulness and that government involvement would lead to film makers opting to leave their films unrated.

An informal survey of WLA members found that about 73 percent of respondents place some restrictions on minors relating to movie circulation. For instance, about 31 percent of all respondents allow parents to place a restriction on their child’s record, but without that request, all materials are available to any minor patron. On the other hand, nearly 21 percent bar minors from checking out R-rated movies altogether. Whichever approach the library took, most respondents felt this was an issue that did not require legislation because the library was meeting the community’s expectations.

For more information go to the Legislative & Budget Status Report, and see SB-258.

Mary Relindes Ellis's "The Turtle Warrior" is Banta Award Winner

The Literary Awards Committee of the Wisconsin Library Association's Reader's Section has selected Mary Relindes Ellis’s novel The Turtle Warrior as the winner of the Banta Award. The award is for the highest literary achievement by a Wisconsin author in 2004. The Turtle Warrior is Hammond resident Ellis’s first novel. It is a powerful tale of two brothers living on a failing farm in northern Wisconsin with a violent alcoholic father. The Turtle Warrior is a dark, emotionally powerful book that will stay with the reader for a long time.

The Banta Award is made possible by the Banta Corporation Foundation through a grant to the WLA Foundation.

The Literary Awards Committee also chose three Notable Wisconsin Authors for their body of work: Robert Bloch (Milwaukee), author of many short stories and novels in the horror field including the novel upon which Hitchcock’s classic film Psycho was based, Irving Wallace (Kenosha), author of bestselling novels including The Chapman Report, The Prize, and The Man, and historian John Gurda, a Milwaukee native whose most recent work is The Making of Milwaukee.

The Literary Awards Committee also selected ten books for Outstanding Achievement. These titles, all published in 2004, were also written by Wisconsin authors. The books are:
Chang, Lan Samantha (Appleton). Inheritance.
Davis, Tom (Green Bay). The Tattered Autumn Sky: Bird Hunting in the Heartland.
Kercheval. Jesse Lee (Madison). Dog Angel: Poems.
Logue, Mary (Stockholm). Bone Harvest.
Meacham, Rebecca (Green Bay). Let’s Do.
Mitchell, Judith Claire (Madison). The Last Day of the War.
Nelscott, Kris (pseudonym of Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Superior). Stone Cribs.
Stefaniak, Mary Helen (Milwaukee). The Turk and My Mother.
Tyson, Timothy B. (Madison). Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story.
Vreeland, Susan (Racine).The Forest Lover.

The 2005 Literary Award Committee members are: Sandra Sechrest (chair), Patricia Bordak, Nanette Bulebosh, Beverly DeWeese, Susan Bushouse Foran, John Hendricks, Anne Kasuboski, Constance Mahsem, Catherine Morris-Nelson, and Edell Schaefer.

For more information about the work of the Literary Awards Committee, go to http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/lac/.

Library funding and operations bills circulating

Two library bills which resulted from the State Superintendent's Task Force on Public Library Legislation and Funding are circulating and will likely be introduced in this session. The bills' sponsors are Sen. Joe Leibham (R- Sheboygan) and Rep. Stephen Freese (R-Dodgeville). WLA members are encouraged to contact their legislators to urge cosponsorship in order to boost the bills' chances of success. The deadline for cosponsorship is July 21.

The bills are LRB-0411/2 and LRB-0412/1, to adopt several of the Task Force's recommendations to reform the way that libraries andlibrary systems are operated and funded. The Task Force finished its work in 2002; the bills were introduced late in the legislature's last session and didn't progress. For more information on the bills, including the text of the drafts, and a DPI summary of the key points, go to the WLA Legislative status report: http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/legis/BudgetStatusReport.htm.

Nominate a site for the 2nd Annual MATS Webbies Awards

Help the WLA Media and Technology Section celebrate excellence in Wisconsin web site design and nominate a site for our Webbies Awards. It's fun! It's easy! And the rules are simple:

• The site must be a Wisconsin library or educational institution web site.
• Anyone can nominate a site.
• Sites must be submitted via our online form by October 1, 2005.
  

The categories are slightly different this year with the removal of the "best site by a Wisconsin library employee not necessarily library-related" and the addition of "most accessible site." We have also broadened the rules a bit to include not only Wisconsin libraries, but also Wisconsin educational institutions.

We hope you'll take the time to nominate a site (or two or three), then we'll see you at the WLA conference in La Crosse in October where we'll announce the winners.

Thanks!
Beth Carpenter
2005 MATS Chair

Learn and Grow with WLA Leadership Involvement

Getting involved in WLA can help you develop your leadership and professional skills, meet people who can be a resource to you, and serve the library profession through support of your association! WLA has many positions, both appointed and elected, including short-term tasks and multi-year assignments. We urge you to consider getting involved.

Learn more about WLA volunteer opportunities, including FAQs about getting involved and specific positions available, on the website: http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/membership/involved.htm.

Awards and Scholarships: Deadlines August 1, September 15
The library community is filled with people who work tirelessly to maintain access to information, provide quality reference services, help children learn to love reading, and do whatever is necessary to serve the needs of their institutions or communities. Do they get enough recognition? Probably not! But you can help by nominating one of these deserving individuals for recognition by WLA members. Or, nominate your own library for Library of the Year. Deadline is August 1: http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/awards/awardprocedures.htm

Likewise, you can encourage future librarians by telling them about one of the WLA Foundation’s scholarship opportunities. Or, if your institution needs to stretch its continuing education budget, apply for one yourself. Deadlines are August 1 and September 15. We have both library education and continuing ed scholarship opportunities: http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/scholarships/

Candidates for WLA Office Announced

The WLA Nominating Committee recently announced the following slate of candidates for WLA-wide elected positions:
WLA Vice President/President-Elect: Rebecca Berger, Director, Door County Library; Ed Van Gemert, Deputy Director, UW-Madison General Library System
ALA Councilor: Phyllis Davis, Associate Director, South Central Library System; Connie Van Der Heide, Reference/Outreach Services Librarian, Wisconsin State Law Library
WLA Foundation Board: Leanne Hansen, Director, Cofrin Library, UW-Green Bay; Kathy Schneider, Director, WiLS

Thanks to all the candidates for agreeing to run for office. The Nominating Committee members are: David Weinberg-Kinsey, Chair; Bob Bocher, Kay Ihlenfeldt, Jay Karow, and Carolynne Rosenberger.

WLA will publish candidates’ statements in the July-August-September issue of the WLA Newsletter and mail official ballots in early August.

State Senator Wants Libraries to Keep Minors From R-rated Movies

Sen. Tom Reynolds (R-West Allis) is circulating a bill (LRB 2213/1) that would require parental consent before libraries loan R-rated movies to minors. Responses to an informal WLA survey indicate that most responding libraries already have policies that restrict minors’ access to movies in some way. The Motion Picture Association of America has issued a memo in opposition to the bill, stating it would be unconstitutional. For more information go to the Legislative & Budget Status Report, and see LRB 2213/1.

Bill Proposes Repeal of "Maintenance of Effort" Funding for Public Libraries

Rep. Mark Gottlieb (R-Port Washington) recently introduced AB-483, which would repeal the maintenance of effort funding for public libraries as a requirement for membership in a public library system. WLA is opposed to the measure.

WLA's position on this matter was outlined in a reply to a May 16 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (JS-Online) editorial that supported repeal of maintenance of effort funding. WLA President Terry Dawson stated, "Current law sensibly ensures that a municipality does not take undue advantage of neighboring libraries (and property taxpayers) while failing to support its own library...[and] that a municipality does not take undue advantage of state funded library system services while failing to support its own library." Dawson also pointed out that if the state provided adequate library system funding, fewer costs would fall to the local property taxpayer. He noted that the average local plus state per capita support for Wisconsin's public libraries is still under 65 cents per week, less than a can of soda.

Co-sponsors of the measure include Representatives Ainsworth, Gielow, Hines, Jensen, Jeskewitz, LeMahieu and Towns. WLA legislative leaders will be meeting with Rep. Gottlieb on July 13 to discuss the bill.