Legislature(1997 - 1998)
03/25/1997 03:13 PM House HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 197 - PUBLIC LIBRARIES Number 1805 CHAIRMAN BUNDE announced the next item on the agenda was HB 197, "An Act relating to libraries." This is the first time this bill has been addressed by the committee, so no action would be taken on it today. GEORGE SMITH, Deputy Director, Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums, Department of Education, explained the development of public library grant programs offered by the state in order to explain how HB 197 addresses certain problems. Prior to 1982, the state offered a grant of up to $1,000 a year to existing public libraries to purchase library materials. At that time there were about 55 public libraries, a number which had been stable for a years. In 1982, during the oil years, the legislature passed a radically different public library grant program. This program was meant to encourage the development of more public library outlets around the state. The grant went from $1,000 a year for public materials to a basic grant of $5,000 to any public facility offering a public library service. The entity could receive an additional $5,000 if it could match local money, on a one to one basis. MR. SMITH said as a result of this encouragement, from 1982 to the present, about 55 new public libraries have been established. Of those 55, 25 have gone belly up after one to three years of service because they were not prepared to offer that service. Frankly the $5,000 basic grant looked very attractive to some of the smaller communities in the state. They felt they could run a public library on that amount of money. The fact that the state offered a basic $5,000, led some to believe that, in fact, you could run a library on that amount of money and not necessarily have any local support. Number 1919 MR. SMITH said, in the early 1990s, a number of the public library directors started to request that the state library work with them to draft a public library law. Not only to address the issues that were coming up regarding the flaws in the grant program, but also to give at least some minimum definition of what types of services a public library should provide as it was never addressed in law. This bill attempts to deal with both of those issues; what are minimum types of services that a public library should provide and how to restructure the grant program to encourage local support and better stability. Number 1956 MR. SMITH said HB 197 is a funny bill in the sense that part of this legislation will appear under AS.14.56, which is where the state library sits in statute and the rest of it will appear in AS 14.29 which are municipal statutes. MR. SMITH explained that this addresses the minimum services that a public library should provide. Those services are explained on page 4 of HB 197. These four areas are; you should establish and maintain a collection of books and other library materials available for public loan, you should provide access to interlibrary loan services, you should provide reading and other education programs for children and, finally, you should provide reference information. These set a minimum level on types of services which should be provided if you are going to be considered a public library for the state grant program. Number 2001 MR. SMITH added, the bill also addresses the issue of how to organize a public library. This area is going to be addressed in municipal law such as if you are going to have a public library board, these are the parameters in which you should form it. If you happen to be a non-profit running a public library, we have many of those in smaller communities around the state, particularly outside areas which are organized as cities, then your board meetings are going to have to be held in public. This is something that non-profits do not necessarily have to do under law, but this legislation would require public board meetings. Number 2032 MR. SMITH referred to the very top of page 4, AS 29.60.140 which dovetails those non-profit corporations operating public libraries in unorganized boroughs outside of cities. The state would allow them to be recognized as entities eligible to provide public library service as long as they are recognized by the Department of Community and Regional Affairs as being eligible for grants. This program already exists for many types of other grants in the state. It would simply make it an easy way of dealing with entities outside incorporated areas. Number 2064 MR. SMITH stated the second major issue, addressed in HB 197, is located on the second half of page 2, which completely restructures the grant program. Currently, an entity is allowed a basic $5,000 grant with no local support with an additional $5,000 on a one to one match. In reality, the grant program has not had enough funds in it to fully fund the matching part for three or four years. On a $5,000 local match, the state can match up to $2,000. The maximum anyone gets anymore is $7,000. This section of the bill proposes that the basic and matching part be eliminated and replaced with one system that requires a local effort of at least $5,000. You would receive a $5,000 grant on a matching basis from the state, but you would have to have at least $5,000 of local effort. An entity could get up to $7,000 if you had a one to one match. MR. SMITH said the new law addresses an issue which was not properly addressed in the original law. The original law required actual dollars if you were going to match. The proposed legislation would allow in-kind services instead money. This would recognize the very good, small libraries being run in this state by volunteers. A dollar value could be attributed to their volunteer services. Number 2132 MR. SMITH explained that in the event that the state has another oil boom and more money could be put into the program, the bill addresses a second issue. If there were more money, so that there was more than enough money to provide $7,000 for each library outlet, additional monies could be distributed on a per capita basis. This would bring a certain amount of equity to the larger public libraries in the state. This equity is not being addressed in the current law. A city of 25,000 who has one public library outlet would get $7,000 and a town of 500 people would get the same amount of money. The larger public library directors who have all looked at the bill have come to a consensus that this is what they would like to do. They did not want to go to per capita if it would hurt anyone currently in the program. They want to guarantee everyone $7,000 before any per capita kick-in came about in the legislation. Number 2173 MR. SMITH said there are two other things which are sort of clean- ups in the bill. These are things the bill drafter thought should be addressed now as it is a convenient time. He referred to the very end of page 4, where there is a proposal to sunset two old public library construction grant programs which have not been funded since the late 1980s. There is a little money which is currently being used for construction. The bill proposes a sunset date of June 30, 1999 which would give the division time to close out all of those old grants, so there is really no reason to have that law on the book anymore. MR. SMITH stated the other thing being addressed is something that the state has been doing since at least the 1970s, but is not addressed in law. If you read current law you would assume that the state is only providing two types of grants; the public library assistance grant and something called interlibrary cooperation grants. In fact there is a third type that has been provided for years, the regional services grant. The one service, under this grant program, that you would probably be most familiar with is the books by mail program to people living in the bush. Fairbanks and Juneau currently provide that service through this grant. Anchorage provides a statewide interlibrary loan to the smaller areas. These are regionally oriented, but not in a library cooperation. This third type of grant program is addressed on pages 1 and 2 of HB 197. TAPE 97-23, SIDE B Number 0000 CHAIRMAN BUNDE verified that the zero fiscal note is because this continues current library programs. Number 0008 REPRESENTATIVE PORTER asked if there were current regulations or would there be regulations proposed which identify what qualifies as in-kind. Number 0018 MR. SMITH explained that current regulations would be redone and an in-kind definition would be covered in those new regulations. He felt that any true local support such as volunteer labor, volunteer electricity and lights for the building, anything like that should definitely be used, as it is local support. There are probably about 20 libraries in the state who are given large amounts of support. In that sense, these changes will benefit them and give them greater security because they will be eligible for up to $7,000. There are, perhaps, somewhere between five and ten libraries in the state who are going to have to seriously look and determine whether or not they wish to provide some local support for their libraries or they will have problems. Number 0121 REPRESENTATIVE GREEN asked if there were any criteria regarding purchasing of a range of materials from science, novels and excludes certain items such as pornography when this $5,000 or $7,000 is granted. Number 0132 MR. SMITH answered that there are not specific requirements. He thought the issue of materials should be addressed in the regulations, which would be written in the future, to encourage people to spread out their purchases among magazines, educational videos, books and perhaps on-line services which are certainly applicable to the medium sized libraries. Even libraries of 1,000 people are now finding that using on-line services to be cost effective. The program would certainly encourage them to spread out their purchases. Number 0190 REPRESENTATIVE GREEN clarified that the types are not specified. Number 0196 MR. SMITH said they don't because each community addresses different populations and different needs. The division thought it was best left up to the communities to decide. Number 0210 REPRESENTATIVE GREEN stated there can be a wide variation in costs for the same book. He asked, when the grants are given, if there was any stipulation that the books be purchased at the lowest available cost. Number 0238 MR. SMITH answered that they don't require the libraries to do this. Alaska has what many state libraries in the country think is one of the best libraries for small public libraries. It gives them information on how to order books and various places which can provide that service at a very cost effective rate. Secondly, the state provides workshops and special training to any of the public libraries who need it. Those are things that the state does to encourage the libraries to utilize their money. He stated that libraries often seek advice from the division on how best to utilize their money. Number 0286 CHAIRMAN BUNDE asked if the libraries employed a trained librarian to best meet the needs of the community. Number 0297 MR. SMITH stated that only 19 of the 85 libraries in the state serve 3,000 or more people. Alaska is the most rural, in the sense of the proportion of libraries in the state who serve a very small population. Over 60 percent of libraries in the state, serve fewer than 1,000 people. The next closest state to Alaska is Nebraska with 40 percent. Then it goes way down from there. Very few of Alaska's public libraries have professionally trained people. The state library has library development people who are able to give the type of training to people without the professional training needed. The state is very aggressive about that and it is in high demand. Number 0371 REPRESENTATIVE DYSON appreciated the philosophy about supporting small libraries and libraries that are developed by the community. Number 0402 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY asked if we are adding a new section defining public libraries. Number 0421 MR. SMITH explained that the original bill, while it allowed grants to public libraries, never said what they were. This legislation addresses that particular issue in that it shows which way the libraries can be legally structured; through municipal law or through non-profit and what the minimum levels of service need to be provided. Number 0468 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY referred to Section 6, where a definition is given for libraries by the services it is supposed to provide. He asked if this was a contemporary definition of a library. Number 0475 MR. SMITH said there is no one consensus on what a public library is. The definition includes minimum levels of types of services that the public library felt should be required at the very least. There are many other things that a public library may do and certainly the larger the library is, the more diverse it becomes as to the services it provides. There is a real question among the librarians that, if you didn't do these things, you shouldn't be considered a library.
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