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Day 3 at MLA
November 24, 2008 09:33 AM | Professional Organizations, MLA2008Aimee Lake, SELCO Finance Manager
Day 3 of MLA was again an informative one for me. The first session was a presentation of Web Junction by Michael Porter, a Web Junction rep. Michael, aka Libraryman, definitely made it a fun session with his humor and enthusiasm. I had been familiar with Web Junction before, but I had never looked around the site much. It offers some very valuable resources in allowing librarians around the state to talk and share their experiences and ideas. The site also has an array of class offerings for librarians from library management and services to technology and how-to's on application software. By simply becoming a Web Junction Minnesota member, these courses are available free of charge.
The second session I attended was Minnesota Library Funding presented by Ken Behringer, Director of the Dakota County Library and Peg Werner, Director of the Viking Library System. As the SELCO Finance Manager, I am pretty much chin-deep in funding on a daily basis. However, that does not necessarily mean I've got the nitty gritty of Minnesota library funding down to a tee. There are several elements that go into the formulas for library funding and with economic and political shifts, those elements have the potential to change dramatically from year to year. Ken Behringer did an excellent job of presenting the background and detail on minimum level of local support and Maintenance of Effort. After his presentation, I definitely feel I have a much firmer grasp of these concepts. Peg Werner then presented state statute language change recommendations by the Minnesota Library Funding Committee. The recommendations address the following:
- The difficulty in handling double digit increases or decreases in ANTC in several subsequent years.
- When LGA/CPA are cut, library directors are placed in a bind because they cannot offer cuts to their departments as can other members of the local team.
- Capital expenses are too narrowly defined.
- The timeline for new or pilot projects is too short.
- There are times when funding bodies would like to contribute more to libraries or other library systems but cannot for "fear of being caught in MOE".
- State funding has not kept pace with county funding for regional public library systems.
Overall, I had a great experience at MLA. It was very worthwhile for me and I've brought home a lot to share with my community and apply to my SELCO responsibilities.
