Tag Archives: Minnesota

General

Local publisher, Graywolf Press, becomes big player

photo-1425141750113-187b6a13e28cIts always nice to hear about a local company doing well beyond the borders of Minnesota. Local publisher, Graywolf Press, is doing just that. A recent article by Vulture talked about the small publisher, its roots, its struggles, and its success. “Publishing just over 30 books a year, Graywolf has had authors win four NBCC awards, a National Book Award, two Pulitzers, and a Nobel Prize — all in the last six years.” As the article says, that’s no Penguin Random House, but Graywolf has “harnessed and to some extent generated a revolution in nonfiction.”

Have you read any Graywolf books? What did you think?

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (Josh Felise), licensed under CC0 1.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE Featured Service: Scholarships

More fall leaves...Are professional development funds tight in your work setting? Is the money to pay your registration to a conference in the budget, but there is no money for hotel or mileage, or to pay a sub so you can be away from your workplace?

CMLE offers scholarships of up to $200 per fiscal year per individual for staff affiliated with any type of  library in Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd and Wright counties in Central Minnesota. The scholarships can be used to attend workshops, conferences, library meetings or task forces, and other library-related activities to promote engagement and/or professional development. All expenses mentioned earlier are appropriate and we encourage you to use the scholarships even if it can’t cover all of the costs. And, if you use our scholarship to help with costs, feel free to mention to your administrator that you have used our program!

Need help paying for that sub? CMLE scholarships come in very handy in settings that require your employer to pay for a “sub” while you are off enhancing your library skill sets. When you fill out the form, just indicate the amount you need to cover that expense. The ITEM Conference is coming up the first week in October and is in St. Cloud, the MLA Conference follows during the second week of October in S. Paul. We would love to help you get there through the use of our scholarship program, but now is the time to apply!

We all owe it to ourselves to keep our skill sets sharp. Confidence and new energy often result when we  take time to invest in ourselves and spend time with our peers. CMLE would like to support you to that end. For all of the details and to apply for a scholarship, go to https://cmle.org/services/scholarships/. The application is quite simple and should take no more than 10 minutes if you know what you want to attend and have the event information in hand.

For more info on the ITEM and MLA conferences and links to registration, go to our Upcoming Library Events listing.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/kncgcov, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
 
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Minnesota Legislative Update

Capital SunsetThe following legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM).

Update: Friday, May 1, 2015 at 9:38 AM

The multi-type funding request was not included in either the House or Senate bill, so it is not moving forward.

The House has proposed a 0.56% increase in each year of the biennium for the general education formula, while the Senate and governor have proposed a 1% per year increase.

There will be a press conference on Monday organized by the major school groups to push for a higher education target than either the House or Senate have in their bills.  See the attached poster.

Recieved: Thursday, April 30, 2015 at 5:34 PM

Legacy Bill:   This afternoon the House passed its omnibus Legacy bill, HF 303, on the floor by a vote of 97-31 .   No amendments were proposed to the Arts and Cultural Heritage article of the bill.  When Rep. Dean Urdahl described the bill at the beginning of the debate he once again emphasized that there were no cuts in the bill because there is no such thing in Legacy.   The Senate Legacy bill is expected to be released next week.

Omnibus Education Finance and Policy Bills:  Yesterday the Senate passed its omnibus education finance bill and its omnibus education policy bill on the floor.  Last Saturday the House passed its omnibus education finance and policy bill (finance and policy are combined in a single bill).

The House appointed its conferees this afternoon.  They are Rep. Jenifer Loon (R – Eden Prairie), Rep. Sondra Erickson (R – Princeton), Rep. Ron Kresha (R – Little Falls), Rep. Bob Dettmer (R- Forest Lake) and Rep. Roz Peterson (R – Lakeville).  Senate conferees are expected to be named tomorrow.  I will send out an alert with contact information for the conferees once they have all been named.

Here is a rundown of the key issues for libraries in these bills:

Regional Library Basic System Support (RLBSS):  The Senate provides an increase of $1.5 million per year.  Because of the 90%/10% payment schedule, the actual amount of the increase will be $1.35 million in FY 16 and $1.5 million in FY 17 and beyond.  The Senate also changes the RLBSS formula by reducing the ANTC portion from 25% to 17% and by increasing the base amount from 5% to 13%.  The funding increase ensures that every regional library system receives an increase under the new formula.  The House has no increase and no formula change.

Regional Library Telecommunications Aid (RLTA):  Both the House and Senate bills include nearly identical language to more closely align RLTA with the federal e-rate program.

Telecommunications Equity Aid (TEA): The Senate increases funding for TEA by $1.5 million per year for the 16-17 biennium only.  The House provides no increase.

School Technology: The Senate requires school districts to reserve future increases in revenue from the School Endowment Fund for technology and telecommunications infrastructure, programs and training.

After School: The Senate provides $500,000 per year in the 16-17 biennium only for after school programs.  The House provides no funding.

Omnibus Tax Bills:  The House passed its omnibus tax bill on the floor yesterday.  The provisions I reported on in my April 22 update remained unchanged.   The Senate released its omnibus tax bill on Monday and passed it out of committee yesterday.  It will be brought up on the Senate floor on Monday.  Here are the provisions in the bill of interest to libraries:

Local Government Aid is increased by $21.5 million in FY 17 (payable in calendar year 2016) and by $45.6 million per year in FY 2018 and beyond.   LGA will be paid to cities in four installments rather than in two.  The new payments dates are March 15, July 15, September 15 and November 15.

County Program Aid is increased by $25 million in FY 17 (payable in calendar year 2016) and by $29.7 million per year in FY 2018 and beyond.

Elaine Keefe
Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 310
St. Paul, MN 55103
(office)651-293-0229
(cell) 612-590-1244
elaine@capitolhillassoc.com

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/p4m2ool, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

MN Library Legislative Update

Capital SunsetThe following legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM).

 

Received Tuesday April 21, 2015 at 5:35pm

House Legacy Bill:  Yesterday the House Legacy Committee competed work on its omnibus bill and passed it out of committee.  Rep. Dean Urdahl, chair of the committee, made it very clear in his opening remarks that no group was entitled to any particular amount of Legacy funding, regardless of what they had received in the past.  As such, there is no such thing as a “cut” in Legacy funds.  We all start out at zero for the biennium, and the amounts we receive will fluctuate – sometimes they will be higher and sometimes they will be lower than in the past.  He said that some groups needed an “attitude adjustment.”

I spoke with Rep. Urdahl today and he expressed annoyance at the number of e-mails he had received about the level of library funding in the bill.  I assured him that his message was loud and clear and that I would convey it to the library community.  I also thanked him for including funding for libraries in his bill, acknowledging that he has long been a strong library supporter.

So, thank you to those of you who contacted your legislators and members of the House Legacy Committee.  However, we need to stop complaining about the level of funding provided in the House Legacy bill.

Broadband:   I reported last Thursday that the House was providing no new funding for broadband grants, while the Senate had $17 million in its budget and the Governor had $30 million in his budget proposal.   However, on Friday when the omnibus jobs and energy bill was heard in the House Ways and Means Committee, $8 million was added for broadband grants.  Funding for the Office of Broadband, which had been eliminated in the bill, was partially restored.

Library Construction Grants:  Today I met with Rep. Jeff Howe (R – Rockville), a member of the House Capital Investment Committee.  He agreed to introduce our bill to provide $10 million for Library Construction Grants.  The bill is intended to put Library Construction Grants under consideration for inclusion in the 2016 bonding bill.  We need to have it introduced this session so that it is on the radar of the House and Senate Capital Investment Committees as they tour the state this fall to look at proposed capital projects.

House Omnibus Tax Bill:  Today the House Tax Committee passed its omnibus tax bill.  Yesterday the committee took public testimony.  The bill makes deep cuts in local government aid for Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, but not for any other cities.  Among the witnesses in opposition to these cuts were Kit Hadley, director of the St. Paul Public Library, and two branch managers. They spoke very eloquently about the impact these cuts would have on library services in St. Paul.

Other provisions of interest in the bill are as follows:

A sales tax exemption for building materials purchased by a contractor under a lump sum contract for buildings used by local governments.  This was strongly supported by cities and counties.

An expansion of the current K-12 education expense subtraction to include pre-K expenses and private school tuition.  The inclusion of private school tuition was strongly opposed by various school organizations.

A Property Tax Payers’ Empowerment Act, which allows a reverse referendum if a city or county increases its property tax levy over the previous year. The referendum is triggered if a petition signed by 10% of the voters in the last general election is filed by June 30. The referendum must be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.  This was opposed by cities and counties.

A working group to make recommendations on revising the county program aid distribution formula.

Repeal of library debt service aid for Minneapolis.

Data Practices Training for Local Units of Government:  The Senate omnibus state government funding bill passed on the Senate floor yesterday.  It includes $100,000 in each year of the biennium for the Department of Administration’s Information and Policy Analysis Division, commonly known as IPAD, to conduct training for local units of government on data practices laws.  This was initiated by the League of Minnesota Cities.  The funding is not included in the House omnibus state government funding bill.

Elaine Keefe
Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 310
St. Paul, MN 55103
(office)651-293-0229
(cell) 612-590-1244
elaine@capitolhillassoc.com

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/p4m2ool, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director

PPphotoI cannot believe we are once again staring down the end of another academic year!  My social media world reminds me that many of you are pushing through grueling testing in the K-12 schools, enduring exhausting budgeting exercises when there simply isn’t enough money, and yes, some of you are defending your jobs too. Welcome to spring in library land. Oh wait, I forgot pending legislation!

Legislatively, it doesn’t help that although the state has a wonderful budget surplus of $1.8 billion for the first time in years,  funding to K-12 education AND libraries will probably not happen in any meaningful way this year (I don’t equate the current 1% increase for K-12 education meaningful). There are many opinions about why this might be. Last year,  the heavy price tag to the state for all-day kindergarten did us no favors. And, the Governor’s push for statewide Pre-K this year, may have pushed too far, and fueled the legislator’s need to block the Governor on yet another pricey education improvement. Personally, I am not sure we were quite ready for another budget item of this size, and I am not sure the schools were ready for it either. Unfortunately, all education related funding (including libraries and multitype systems) get punished when all of our requests are included in a big old education omnibus bill. When things get adversarial, unfortunately we all lose! And, let’s not forget the students, what price will they pay?

On a positive note, I also see good things this time of year!

  • Summer reading lists and hammock plans are growing,
  • We only see snow showers occasionally each week, and
  • Great summer events like the MidMN EdCamp in St. Cloud are taking on an exciting life of their own. CMLE is a sponsor of this event, and we are hoping to see you there!
  • And, I see that 152 people in Central MN took time out of busy schedules to participate in our 2015 CMLE Needs Assessment. To those people, thank you; we are prepared to suit up and serve the expressed needs of the majority of respondents!

Doing a Needs Assessment is an emotional roller coaster much like a legislative session!  As you can imagine, trying to determine and/or serve the needs of almost 800 people in 320 locations is a tall order, and you can only ask for the information if you are brave enough to face it! We are happy to see that 85% of our audience is receiving our weekly email that acts as a launching pad for important library information. Help us discover who we might be missing. We saw few surprises in your use of social media, but still think Twitter is underutilized as a collaboration tool  with colleagues. Our Tech Bits and Ideas category of information was rated highest which fulfilled our hunch this year when we added it to the Weekly Review lineup. The open ended questions are the hardest….we hear worried, isolated, and exhausted voices in some of those responses. CMLE will continue to listen, support you,  and respond! Thank you for the important work you do in Minnesota libraryland and watch for the next installment of Needs Assessment data next week. Did you miss this weeks results?

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