Leading to Act 420 • WISCAT ILL Tips and FAQ • Useful URLs • Reflection

February 6 Library Annual Report Assistance, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., NWLS

February 7 Technology Update and Planning Meeting, 10:00 a.m., NWLS

February 8 Library Annual Report Assistance, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., NWLS

February 9 Library Annual Report Assistance, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., NWLS

February 21 Preventing Workplace Violence, 9:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., NWLS

March 1 Promoting Rural Libraries/Children's Services Roundtable and Idea Sharing, 10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., NWLS

March 6,7 Children's Book Fest, Rhinelander

March 13 Greener Pastures Rural Library Sustainability Workshop, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Rice Lake Public Library (also April 18 in Mercer).

March 17 NWLS Board of Trustees Meeting, 12:00 p.m., NWLS

March 29 LSTA Early Literacy Project: Infant Brain Development, 10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., Iron River

March 30 LSTA Early Literacy Project: Infant Brain Development, 10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., Mellen

April 18 Greener Pastures Rural Library Sustainability Workshop, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Mercer, (also March 13 in Rice Lake).

2007 UW-Madison's School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) Continuing Education Courses:

• February 7-March 21 Creating Public Library Programming for Adults Online Course.
• February 19-March 18 Business Reference (Online)
• February 19-March 18 Topics in Library Management (Online)
• June 25-29 Public Library Administration (on-site), UW-Madison
• August 13-17 Cataloging (on-site), UW-Madison

For more information, contact Anna Palmer at 608.263.4452 or ahpalmer@wisc.edu.

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Leading to Act 420
From Jim Trojanowski, NWLS Director

In last week's Streams, I introduced Act 420, a new law that expands county non-resident borrowing payments across county lines. In the article, I wrote about the varying effect of Act 420 on both libraries and counties. This week I'll discuss the history that led to passage of the new law. To read last week's article, click here: A Perspective on Act 420.

Wisconsin public library systems, of which Northern Waters Library Service is one of 17, were created by the state in the early 1970s. At that time, libraries were scarce in many rural areas of the state, and communities that did have a library often denied access to residents not living in the host town or city. As a result, many Wisconsin residents did not have access to public library service.

With passage of the law creating public library systems, the legislature effectively opened libraries to all Wisconsin residents, while also improving the quality of public libraries in the state. It did this by providing state funding for library systems, which in turn provided services to libraries; in return, the libraries agreed to a number of requirements. Among these requirements was serving all non-residents of the library system service area on an equal basis with the residents of the community that funded the public library. Every Wisconsin county and public library now belongs to one of the state's 17 public library systems.

By the late 1980s there was growing frustration among many library directors and local elected officials over the lack of compensation for serving non-residents. While counties were required to plan for library services to non-residents, many provided limited or no funding to implement their plans. In most counties, residents of library communities paid far more in library support than did non-residents, while receiving virtually the same quality of service.

By 1990 Northern Waters Library Service and its member libraries had developed plans for each member county that included reimbursements to libraries for serving non-residents. Often, however, the counties failed to fully fund the reimbursements, and there was growing discontent with the relatively small sums of money libraries received. This was a common concern among libraries and municipal officials not only in the NWLS service area but throughout Wisconsin. Indeed, some counties provided no reimbursements at all for non-resident usage.

There was at least one attempt to resolve the non-resident borrowing problem at the state level. Inform Wisconsin would have provided direct state funding to libraries for serving non-residents. There were also ongoing efforts to increase public library system funding in order to help systems work on the problems individually. Unfortunately, there was limited legislative support for these initiatives, and none of them was successful.

Finally, Act 150 was passed in 1997. A portion of Act 150 required counties to reimburse libraries for use by non-residents of a library community at not less than 70% of the actual cost of serving those non-residents. While some librarians were concerned that counties that were already funding their libraries at a level greater than 70% would reduce their funding, most were pleased by the result. For many libraries, the difficult issue of non-resident borrowing was successfully resolved. However, because the law only required reimbursements to libraries within a county, for many libraries the problem was addressed only in part.

Next week I'll discuss the growing demand for cross-county reimbursements that is a significant part of Act 420.

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Requests in Expired Status: Points to Remember

1. Expired status means the "Need By" date has passed.
2. Requests cannot be reactivated
3. Print a copy of the request for notifying patron
4. Update the request to "Request Cancel" and submit.

Book Club Requests in WISCAT: Keeping Track of Patrons

When using the Multi-Copy Request function in WISCAT to order multiple copies for a book club it is necessary to enter one patron name when submitting the ILL request. The software then splits the request into many copies according to the number of copies entered on the ILL request form.

It is difficult to keep track of which specific request is out to which patron, but you could do so by editing the patron name in WISCAT ILL. We have the ability to edit the patron name and other patron information in ILL requests at any time. Just make sure you remember to click on "Submit" after you are finished editing.

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Privacy Lost
From Librarians' Internet Index, http://lii.org

Privacy Lost is a collection of stories from October 2006 examining "the steady erosion of Americans' privacy, whether people are concerned and what impact other new technologies might have on your right to be left alone." Topics include technology (such as email and wireless video recorders), smart driver's licenses, comparison between U.S. and European laws, and celebrities and aggressive paparazzi. From MSNBC.

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“Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone's life forever.”

-Margaret Cho

Contact NWLS for subscription services to the Streams news: newsletter@nwls.lib.wi.us

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