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URGENT LSTA ALERT: REPOSTING NEEDED IMMEDIATELY -Forwarded
- Subject: URGENT LSTA ALERT: REPOSTING NEEDED IMMEDIATELY -Forwarded
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Subject: URGENT LSTA ALERT: REPOSTING NEEDED IMMEDIATELY
The following is a message from Carol Henderson, Exec. Director of
the ALA Washington Office (cch@xxxxxxxxxxx):
==================================================================
URGENT ALERT: REPOSTING TO APPROPRIATE LISTSERVS NEEDED
IMMEDIATELY
The ALA Executive Board and Committee on Legislation have
recommended that the COL Chair prepare an alert about the draft
guidelines for the LSTA National Leadership Grants or Contracts
program.
The intent is that this alert be reposted on appropriate
electronic lists to bring concerns about this draft to the
attention of more parts of the library community, and to urge a
large number of comments during the public comment period (ending
August 18).
Please repost the memorandum below on appropriate electronic lists
available to you. Thanks!
==================================================================
MEMORANDUM
TO: Appropriate listservs
FROM: Patricia A. Wand, Chair, ALA Committee on Legislation
DATE: July 14, 1997
SUBJECT: Comments needed by August 18 on draft guidelines
for LSTA National Leadership Program;
Please repost this memo as appropriate
On June 17, the Institute of Museum and Library
Services announced the availability for public comment
by August 18 of draft guidelines for the National
Leadership Grants or Contracts program under the Museum
and Library Services Act. This program is found in
Section 262 of the Library Services and Technology Act.
LSTA is Subtitle B of the Museum and Library Services
Act; other subtitles include general provisions and
museum grant programs.
LSTA includes a mandated setaside of 4 percent of
appropriations designated for national leadership
purposes:
1. education and training of persons in library
and information science, particularly in areas of
new technology and other critical needs, including
graduate fellowships, traineeships, institutes, or
other programs;
2. research and demonstration projects related to
the improvement of libraries, education in library
and information science, enhancement of library
services through effective and efficient use of
new technologies, and dissemination of information
derived from such projects;
3. preservation or digitization of library
materials and resources, giving priority to
projects emphasizing coordination, avoidance of
duplication, and access by researchers beyond the
institution or library entity undertaking the
project; and
4. model programs demonstrating cooperative
efforts between libraries and museums.
Several groups within the American Library Association
discussed the draft guidelines at the recent ALA Annual
Conference in San Francisco. The ALA Executive Board,
the Committee on Legislation, the Committee on Research
and Statistics, ASCLA, and other units expressed
serious concern with certain aspects of the draft
guidelines. Both the Executive Board and the Committee
on Legislation recommended that I alert other library
constituencies, summarize the nature of the concerns,
and urge library groups, individual libraries or
library schools, and individual librarians and library
supporters to examine the draft guidelines and file
comments during the public comment period.
WHERE TO FIND THE TEXT OF THE DRAFT GUIDELINES
The full text of the draft guidelines is available on
the IMLS web site at:
http://www.imls.fed.us/guidelines/natlead.pdf
or by mail from the Institute of Museum and Library
Services at:
IMLS, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20506.
MAJOR CONCERN IDENTIFIED BY ALA UNITS
The draft guidelines, by describing National Leadership
Grants or Contracts under the Museum and Library
Services Act and providing for museum eligibility for
all parts of the program, obscure the fact that this is
a program clearly intended by Congress to provide a
small amount (4%) of funding under the Library Services
and Technology Act for national needs IN LIBRARIES AND
IN THE LIBRARY FIELD. For the museum community in
particular, with no knowledge of the separate
development and history of LSTA, the draft guidelines
will set up unrealistic expectations of museum
involvement in library programs, and lead to comments
on the guidelines and eventually applications based on
incorrect or at least incomplete information.
MAJOR RECOMMENDATION FROM ALA UNITS
The first three proposed priorities for FY 1998 should
comply with the law's first three purposes and provide
that applicants shall be only libraries or library
entities (library agencies, library consortia, library
schools). The guidelines as drafted propose that
museums and museum agencies would be eligible for all
three library purposes in partnership with libraries.
Museum eligibility is clearly spelled out in the fourth
purpose of joint library/museum projects.
RATIONALE FOR MAJOR RECOMMENDATION
The predecessor of this program was Title II of the
Higher Education Act, which was repealed as LSTA was
enacted. The provisions of HEA II-B focused on library
education and training and library research and
demonstration. HEA II-C focused on strengthening major
research libraries through preservation and access
projects. IT IS CLEAR FROM READING THE PURPOSES IN THE
LSTA STATUTE OF THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP GRANTS OR
CONTRACTS THAT THE FIRST THREE PURPOSES ARE INTENDED TO
HAVE A LIBRARY FOCUS EXCLUSIVELY, IN LINE WITH THE
PROVISIONS OF ITS HEA II ANTECEDENT.
It is also clear that the fourth purpose, model
programs of cooperation between libraries and museums,
was intended to provide programmatic support for the
new library/museum relationship forged in the Museum
and Library Services Act, of which LSTA is a part.
Thus, only libraries (as defined in LSTA), library
consortia (as defined in LSTA), library agencies, or
graduate library education programs in institutions of
higher education (in line with predecessor history)
would be eligible for grants or contracts under the
first three purposes, while museums would be eligible
only under the fourth purpose. This critical
distinction between the first three purposes and the
fourth purposes is lost in the draft guidelines.
In the draft, museums are specifically included in the
wording of priority number two (corresponding to the
second purpose) and the application process is open to
museums in partnership for all purposes. Museums
should be eligible only under the fourth purpose, and
the priority in this first year should be less
prescriptive and more open to allow for the wide
diversity of joint projects that might be proposed,
subject only to a preference for those with broad
national impact.
RECENT FUNDING HISTORY AND PROPOSED FUNDING
HEA II current (FY 1997 funding): 7.5 million
Expected FY 1998 funding for
LSTA National Leadership Grants
(assuming funding at President's
budget request)
Total required by law from LSTA: $5.5 million
Total requested as addition to
museum grants: $1.0 million
According to draft guidelines, this
would be broken down in FY 1998:
Purposes 1-3 2/3 of LSTA funds: $3.6 million
Purpose 4 1/3 of LSTA funds: $1.8 million
Purpose 4 $1 million in new museum funds: $1.0 million
SPECIFIC CONCERNS IDENTIFIED BY ALA UNITS
Various ALA units identified the following concerns
regarding the draft guidelines:
o Agencies (defined as "any state or local agency
officially charged by the governmental entity with
the extension and development of library OR
[emphasis added] museum services within a
governmental unit") are eligible applicants,
singly or in partnership with other eligible
applicants, for grants awarded under the first
three national leadership purposes. This
definition of eligible applicants is not
appropriate.
o Museums are also eligible applicants for partner
grant awards in conjunction with a library under
the first three national leadership purposes.
This is not appropriate.
o Museums are required partners for grants awarded
under the fourth national leadership purpose.
This is appropriate, but should be the only place
where museums or museum agencies are eligible.
o Revising the draft guidelines to correct this
major problem--that is, to provide that library
entities (and not museums) are the eligible
applicants for purposes one through three--will
require considerable rewriting throughout the
document to reflect this change.
o Several ALA units expressed concern about the high
proportion of national leadership grant monies
(1/3) proposed to be devoted to cooperative
museum-library projects; no rationale is given nor
it is supported by LSTA. They recommended that
the fourth purpose should receive no more than 1/4
of LSTA funding for National Leadership Grants.
This would be $1,375,000 plus the $1 million
expected from museum appropriations for joint
projects in FY 1998, for a total of $2,375,000.
o The eligibility of higher education institutions
for these grants relates to the history of this
program in HEA title II. The guidelines should
specify the inclusion of graduate programs of
library education at such institutions, as has
traditionally been the case.
o LSTA includes a definition of library consortium.
Library entities meeting this definition should be
considered eligible for National Leadership Grants
or Contracts.
o Applications for the first three purposes should
be reviewed by members of the library community
alone. Applications for the fourth purpose should
be reviewed by a combination of library and museum
representatives.
ACTION NEEDED
Please repost this memorandum on appropriate listservs
available to you, such as listservs for ALA divisions,
round tables, committees, library educators, or other
groups. And be sure to send comments before the
August 18 deadline to Dr. Rebecca Danvers at IMLS.
The ALA Washington Office had earlier requested input
to the ALA response by August 1 (to ALA WO at
alawash@xxxxxxxxxxx or by fax at 202-628-8419). But it
is also critical that IMLS hear directly in public
comments from many voices throughout the library
community on the issues raised above and on any others
that may be identified. Your comments need not be
lengthy, but it is important that you be heard. Please
send copies of your comments to the ALA Washington
Office.
This new version of the longstanding program to meet
national needs in the library field has much potential
for making a major contribution to the profession and
to the development of library service that far exceeds
the modest dollars involved. It is essential that this
small library program get off to a good start in its
new home, the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
IMLS has tremendous potential to promote and support
library programs and is already doing so effectively in
connection with the state-based program which receives
more than 90 percent of LSTA funds.
==================================================================
------------------- LSTA4%.TXT follows -------------------
MEMORANDUM
TO: Appropriate listservs
FROM: Patricia A. Wand, Chair, ALA Committee on
Legislation
DATE: July 14, 1997
SUBJECT: Comments needed by August 18 on draft
guidelines for LSTA National Leadership Program;
Please repost this memo as appropriate
On June 17, the Institute of Museum and Library
Services announced the availability for public comment
by August 18 of draft guidelines for the National
Leadership Grants or Contracts program under the Museum
and Library Services Act. This program is found in
Section 262 of the Library Services and Technology Act.
LSTA is Subtitle B of the Museum and Library Services
Act; other subtitles include general provisions and
museum grant programs.
LSTA includes a mandated setaside of 4 percent of
appropriations designated for national leadership
purposes:
1. education and training of persons in library
and information science, particularly in areas of
new technology and other critical needs, including
graduate fellowships, traineeships, institutes, or
other programs;
2. research and demonstration projects related to
the improvement of libraries, education in library
and information science, enhancement of library
services through effective and efficient use of
new technologies, and dissemination of information
derived from such projects;
3. preservation or digitization of library
materials and resources, giving priority to
projects emphasizing coordination, avoidance of
duplication, and access by researchers beyond the
institution or library entity undertaking the
project; and
4. model programs demonstrating cooperative
efforts between libraries and museums.
Several groups within the American Library Association
discussed the draft guidelines at the recent ALA Annual
Conference in San Francisco. The ALA Executive Board,
the Committee on Legislation, the Committee on Research
and Statistics, ASCLA, and other units expressed
serious concern with certain aspects of the draft
guidelines. Both the Executive Board and the Committee
on Legislation recommended that I alert other library
constituencies, summarize the nature of the concerns,
and urge library groups, individual libraries or
library schools, and individual librarians and library
supporters to examine the draft guidelines and file
comments during the public comment period.
WHERE TO FIND THE TEXT OF THE DRAFT GUIDELINES
The full text of the draft guidelines is available on
the IMLS web site at:
http://www.imls.fed.us/guidelines/natlead.pdf
or by mail from the Institute of Museum and Library
Services at:
IMLS, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
20506.
MAJOR CONCERN IDENTIFIED BY ALA UNITS
The draft guidelines, by describing National Leadership
Grants or Contracts under the Museum and Library
Services Act and providing for museum eligibility for
all parts of the program, obscure the fact that this is
a program clearly intended by Congress to provide a
small amount (4%) of funding under the Library Services
and Technology Act for national needs IN LIBRARIES AND
IN THE LIBRARY FIELD. For the museum community in
particular, with no knowledge of the separate
development and history of LSTA, the draft guidelines
will set up unrealistic expectations of museum
involvement in library programs, and lead to comments
on the guidelines and eventually applications based on
incorrect or at least incomplete information.
MAJOR RECOMMENDATION FROM ALA UNITS
The first three proposed priorities for FY 1998 should
comply with the law's first three purposes and provide
that applicants shall be only libraries or library
entities (library agencies, library consortia, library
schools). The guidelines as drafted propose that
museums and museum agencies would be eligible for all
three library purposes in partnership with libraries.
Museum eligibility is clearly spelled out in the fourth
purpose of joint library/museum projects.
RATIONALE FOR MAJOR RECOMMENDATION
The predecessor of this program was Title II of the
Higher Education Act, which was repealed as LSTA was
enacted. The provisions of HEA II-B focused on library
education and training and library research and
demonstration. HEA II-C focused on strengthening major
research libraries through preservation and access
projects. IT IS CLEAR FROM READING THE PURPOSES IN THE
LSTA STATUTE OF THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP GRANTS OR
CONTRACTS THAT THE FIRST THREE PURPOSES ARE INTENDED TO
HAVE A LIBRARY FOCUS EXCLUSIVELY, IN LINE WITH THE
PROVISIONS OF ITS HEA II ANTECEDENT.
It is also clear that the fourth purpose, model
programs of cooperation between libraries and museums,
was intended to provide programmatic support for the
new library/museum relationship forged in the Museum
and Library Services Act, of which LSTA is a part.
Thus, only libraries (as defined in LSTA), library
consortia (as defined in LSTA), library agencies, or
graduate library education programs in institutions of
higher education (in line with predecessor history)
would be eligible for grants or contracts under the
first three purposes, while museums would be eligible
only under the fourth purpose. This critical
distinction between the first three purposes and the
fourth purposes is lost in the draft guidelines.
In the draft, museums are specifically included in the
wording of priority number two (corresponding to the
second purpose) and the application process is open to
museums in partnership for all purposes. Museums
should be eligible only under the fourth purpose, and
the priority in this first year should be less
prescriptive and more open to allow for the wide
diversity of joint projects that might be proposed,
subject only to a preference for those with broad
national impact.
RECENT FUNDING HISTORY AND PROPOSED FUNDING
HEA II current (FY 1997 funding): $7.5 million
Expected FY 1998 funding for LSTA National Leadership
Grants
(assuming funding at President's budget request)
Total required by law from LSTA: $5.5 million
Total requested as addition to museum grants: $1.0 million
According to draft guidelines, this would be broken
down in FY 1998:
Purposes 1-3 2/3 of LSTA funds: $3.6 million
Purpose 4 1/3 of LSTA funds: $1.8 million
Purpose 4 $1 million in new museum funds: $1.0 million
SPECIFIC CONCERNS IDENTIFIED BY ALA UNITS
Various ALA units identified the following concerns
regarding the draft guidelines:
o Agencies (defined as "any state or local agency
officially charged by the governmental entity with
the extension and development of library OR
[emphasis added] museum services within a
governmental unit") are eligible applicants,
singly or in partnership with other eligible
applicants, for grants awarded under the first
three national leadership purposes. This
definition of eligible applicants is not
appropriate.
o Museums are also eligible applicants for partner
grant awards in conjunction with a library under
the first three national leadership purposes.
This is not appropriate.
o Museums are required partners for grants awarded
under the fourth national leadership purpose.
This is appropriate, but should be the only place
where museums or museum agencies are eligible.
o Revising the draft guidelines to correct this
major problem--that is, to provide that library
entities (and not museums) are the eligible
applicants for purposes one through three--will
require considerable rewriting throughout the
document to reflect this change.
o Several ALA units expressed concern about the high
proportion of national leadership grant monies
(1/3) proposed to be devoted to cooperative
museum-library projects; no rationale is given nor
it is supported by LSTA. They recommended that
the fourth purpose should receive no more than 1/4
of LSTA funding for National Leadership Grants.
This would be $1,375,000 plus the $1 million
expected from museum appropriations for joint
projects in FY 1998, for a total of $2,375,000.
o The eligibility of higher education institutions
for these grants relates to the history of this
program in HEA title II. The guidelines should
specify the inclusion of graduate programs of
library education at such institutions, as has
traditionally been the case.
o LSTA includes a definition of library consortium.
Library entities meeting this definition should be
considered eligible for National Leadership Grants
or Contracts.
o Applications for the first three purposes should
be reviewed by members of the library community
alone. Applications for the fourth purpose should
be reviewed by a combination of library and museum
representatives.
ACTION NEEDED
Please repost this memorandum on appropriate listservs
available to you, such as listservs for ALA divisions,
round tables, committees, library educators, or other
groups. And be sure to send comments before the
August 18 deadline to Dr. Rebecca Danvers at IMLS.
The ALA Washington Office had earlier requested input
to the ALA response by August 1 (to ALA WO at
alawash@xxxxxxxxxxx or by fax at 202-628-8419). But it
is also critical that IMLS hear directly in public
comments from many voices throughout the library
community on the issues raised above and on any others
that may be identified. Your comments need not be
lengthy, but it is important that you be heard. Please
send copies of your comments to the ALA Washington
Office.
This new version of the longstanding program to meet
national needs in the library field has much potential
for making a major contribution to the profession and
to the development of library service that far exceeds
the modest dollars involved. It is essential that this
small library program get off to a good start in its
new home, the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
IMLS has tremendous potential to promote and support
library programs and is already doing so effectively in
connection with the state-based program which receives
more than 90 percent of LSTA funds.