This week and last week we attended two hearings at the Capitol that represent milestones for TSLAC. Last week, on August 29, the Sunset Commission (the governing board of which is comprised of five senators and five representatives) held a hearing to discuss agencies under review. As most of our stakeholder groups know, TSLAC has been undergoing a Sunset Commission review for the past several months. In July, the Sunset Commission Staff issued their Report on TSLAC. That report contained a number of recommendations including that the agency should continue to operate for another 12 years and should not be combined with another agency.

At the August 29 hearing, TSLAC Chairman Michael Waters, Assistant State Librarian Gloria Meraz, and I testified on behalf of the agency and answered the Commission’s questions. Chairman Brian Birdwell and other committee members asked a number of questions about various topics, including how we manage the records of state legislators and how we ensure equity in the award of competitive grant funds. Chairman Birdwell also asked questions regarding the accreditation of public libraries in Texas and expressed a concern that local governments be able to retain maximum flexibility in determining how the locality taxes itself for library service.

Senator Dawn Buckingham asked about the Talking Book Program and any impediments to the service. I described the program and noted as a significant impediment that we lack the authority to advertise the service and, as a result, not enough eligible Texans are aware of and use the service. She noted that should be an easy fix.

Six of the seven TSLAC commission members were present and Chairman Birdwell thanked and praised the commission for being in attendance and for their careful stewardship of the agency on behalf of the people of Texas. Also in attendance were Texas Library Association members Leah Mann, Edward Smith, and Susan Mann who spoke about the value of the services provided by TSLAC. We are very grateful of the support that TLA and other stakeholder groups have given TSLAC throughout the Sunset process.

The next step in the Sunset process is the Commission’s decision meeting on November 14 and 15 when they meet to take action on TSLAC and other agencies.

Yesterday we presented our 2020-2021 Legislative Appropriations Request before the Joint Budget Hearing, a meeting of staff representing the Legislative Budget Board, the office of the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the house, and the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees. We described our budget and our seven exceptional items, including funding for a two-part facilities project that will ensure the agency will have adequate room to store materials for up to the next 25 years.

We are also requesting $4.2 million for new funds for TexShare and TexQuest to purchase e-book materials to complement the resources in those very heavily used and much-beloved services.

We are looking forward to the start of the legislative session and the conversation about the resources we need to best serve the information needs of all Texans in all parts of the state.

Libraries have been getting some great press coverage lately. Ironically some of it started with a piece in Forbes magazine all about how libraries are obsolete and all anyone ever needs is on Amazon (I always wonder when I hear someone say that type of thing if they have actually been in a library anytime in the last 20 years). The article drew such a huge avalanche of negative reaction, that Forbes actually pulled it from their website, which magazines and newspapers seldom do.

In the meantime, in reacting to the article, a number of people came across our Return on Investment Report for Public Libraries in Texas, the one that demonstrates that every one dollar invested in public libraries yields $4.64 in investment. That report is on our website at https://www.tsl.texas.gov/roi. In fact, an article in the widely circulated U.K. newspaper, The Guardian, about the Forbes article, cited the TSLAC ROI study: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/23/twaddle-librarians-respond-to-suggestion-amazon-should-replace-libraries?CMP=share_btn_tw

On August 7, the Texas Tribune ran my article also referencing the Forbes article, titled, “Public Libraries Offer a Great Return for Texas Taxpayers”: https://www.tribtalk.org/2018/08/07/public-libraries-offer-a-great-return-for-texas-taxpayers/ Thanks to our amazing Communications Officer Macy Hurwitz for placing this article in the Texas Tribune, a source widely read by Texas decision makers in state and local government.

Earlier this week, the Texas Observer ran a tribute about the late great Texas Senator Babe Schwartz who died a few days ago at the age of 92. https://www.texasobserver.org/stalwart-battler-for-justice-remembering-babe-schwartz-1926-2018/ This article contains a nice audio clip of Senator Schwartz in his typically sharp and entertaining style provided courtesy of TSLAC’s Texas Senate Recordings (available on our website at: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/senaterecordings/about.html.)

And then today USA Today published an article that extolls the virtues of the modern public library:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/komando/2018/08/17/free-ebooks-audiobooks-wi-fi-how-get-more-your-library/1009853002/ This article does not directly mention Texas libraries, but it certainly pertains to the wonderful range of services and materials available at public libraries in Texas and across the country.

It is once again budget time and visitors to our agency lately might have seen some rather dazed senior staff wandering the halls, including our Chief Operations and Fiscal Officer, Donna Osborne, who is the point person on pulling this monster document together. Every two years we are called on to submit our Legislative Appropriations Request. This year we were happy to see that we were not instructed to start at an automatic reduction (though we were directed to produce a 10 percent reduction plan should it be needed).

We also were not directed not to submit additional funding requests. So we have and they are rather large this time. On Wednesday of this week our commission met (with three new members: Commissioners Darryl Tocker, Arthur Mann, and David Garza) and prioritized the so-called exceptional items, or additional funding items, as follows:

1. Storage for State Records – $36,016,600 – No, there isn’t an extra zero in this item. It is a very large request, but the need is huge also. This item represents both a short- and long-term solution to the fact that we are running out of space for the storage of records and archives, a situation made immediate and much worse because of several factors. This item will allow retrofitting of a site in South Austin for a short-term solution and the construction of an expansion of the Records Center on Shoal Creek for a 25-year solution. Without some funding for this item we will be of room to store state records by the end of fiscal year 2019.
2. Cybersecurity for State Resources – $1,209,942 – For the second biennium, we are requesting the resources to adequately protect our automated systems.
3. TexShare and TexQuest E-Book Resources – $4,545,988 – Providing access to online information through these signature programs continues to be the number one priority for our library clientele statewide. This item would expand the availability of e-book resources to public, K-12 and college and university library users across Texas.
4. Targeted Salary Increases – $400,000 – For the third biennium in a row, we are asking for additional funds to help us bring our salaries to levels that will allow us to recruit and retain a qualified agency workforce. When we first asked for this in 2015, 89% of our staff were working below the mid-point of their salary range. That number has dropped to 71%, which is an improvement, but we still have a long way to go.
5. InfoPower for Texas Communities – $554,524 – This is a new request that would allow our agency to conduct a more concerted and coordinated plan of outreach to take our information, training, and services to libraries, local governments, and citizens in all parts of the state. This project would provide a coordinator for this project and a driver for a vehicle we plan to purchase in FY 2019 to travel the state disseminating our services.
6. Agency General Counsel for PIA Requests and Contracts – $484,184 – Between our much-higher-than-average PIA requests and our extensive contracts, we really need a dedicated attorney to assist our agency. We are a large agency not to have our own General Counsel. This item would streamline our processes and take burden off of staff who are currently managing PIA responses and contracts.

As always, we look forward to keeping our stakeholder groups apprised of the progress of these items. We will have our first hearing before the Joint Budget Committee on September 6. And we look forward to an important session for our agency as we approach reauthorization and these many important projects bringing information resources to Texans in all parts of the state.

Last week TSLAC got some very good news in the form of the Sunset Commission Staff Report. Among other recommendations, the Report stated that “The State has a continuing need for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission” and that the agency should be continued for another 12 years.

Every dozen years, all state agencies must be reviewed and specifically reauthorized or they will cease to exist. Our turn is up in 2019. Preparatory to that, the Sunset Commission conducts a months-long review and study of the agency. In connection with that process, Sunset staff spoke to many TSLAC stakeholders across the state in libraries, archives, and local government. They conducted surveys, they met with staff, they attended our conferences and meetings, and they paid attention to what they do.

Apparently, and for the most part, they liked what they saw. The Staff Report starts with this statement: “The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) zealously performs its mission to provide Texans with the information needed to lead informed, productive lives. The agency’s professional and dedicated staff support libraries throughout the state, manage the state archives, help government agencies properly manage records, and directly circulate audiobooks to thousands of Texans with disabilities.”

The report is not without constructive criticism. In particular, the report focuses on several aspects of archival management, in particular, the large backlog of archives, as needing strategic direction and planning. The report also makes recommendations about the management of legislator records, public information requests, and competitive grants. We gratefully accept the suggestions and will take the opportunity to strengthen our operation in those key areas.

In late August, we will appear before the Sunset Commission to answer questions about our agency and to speak to the report. We expect that in the opening days of the session, legislation will be introduced to reauthorize the agency. We are very grateful to the many people across Texas who took the time to express their thoughts about TSLAC to the Sunset Commission. We were proud and humbled by the many statements of support that came from librarians and library supporters, the historical and research community, from state and local records managers, and from the general public. We look forward to being reauthorized and continuing to providing access to information to Texans in all parts of the state.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to talking to all of you about how we can continue to improve our services.

This week our staff joined librarians from across Texas at the Texas Library Association Annual Assembly meeting here in Austin. This annual meeting is an opportunity for library leaders from all parts of the state to come together to plan association activities that will advance outstanding service and resources for libraries of all types. We very much enjoy meeting our colleagues from across the state and participating in discussions about how we can strategically advance great library service for all Texans.

While at this meeting, Assistant State Librarian Gloria Meraz and I were able to present a “Hot Topic” session regarding the TSLAC Sunset Review. In that gathering, we heard many positive and helpful ideas about how we can improve our services to libraries.

Also at this Assembly, TLA adopted two resolutions of key importance to TSLAC: to support our agency’s reauthorization in the Sunset Review and the other to support the TSLAC Legislative Appropriations Request for 2020-2021 which will be submitted on August 3. The resolution supporting our sunset review specifically speaks to the cooperative relationship between TLA and TSLAC. I appreciate this note and will say that strengthening the relationship between our organizations has been a priority of mine while at TSLAC.

We appreciate and applaud the great work that TLA does for Texas libraries and commend TLA President Jennifer LaBoon and TLA Executive Director Dana Braccia and the wonderful TLA members and staff on a very successful 2018 Annual Assembly.

Senator Brian Birdwell (l), swearing in new TSLAC Commissioner Arthur Mann of Hillsboro.

We were very excited to learn last Friday that Governor Abbott has made four appointments to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Commissioner Lynwood Givens of Plano was reappointed to a second term on the Commission. The governor also appointed three new individuals: David Garza of Brownsville, Arthur Mann of Hillsboro, and Darryl Tocker of Austin.

Commissioner Mann is the administrator of the Hillsboro Economic Development Corporation and is known to many in the Texas library community as the husband of former TLA President, library advocate, and Hillsboro Library Director Susan Mann. Commissioner Tocker is the executive director of the Tocker Foundation, which has long been a driving force in the development of small community libraries across Texas. Commissioner Garza is a law partner at Garza & Garza, LLP, has served for over 20 years on various state boards, and is a devoted fan of Texas history and a user of TSLAC information services.

Our excitement over these excellent appointments is tempered by the departure of Commissioner Sharon Carr of Katy. Commissioner Carr has served since 2005 and, as a former school library administrator, was often a valuable subject matter expert regarding library operations on our commission. We thank Commissioner Carr for her dedicated service to our agency, her leadership, and wise counsel over the past 13 years.

We journeyed to Hillsboro Wednesday afternoon for Commissioner Mann’s swearing in by Senator Brian Birdwell. Senator Birdwell welcomed our new commissioner and reminded him that he is appointed to serve the people of Texas, not the agency. It is an important point and we as TSLAC staff look forward to receiving the benefit of that valuable leadership from our new and returning commissioners.

The full press release on the TSLAC appointments can be found at: https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-appoints-four-to-texas-state-library-and-archives-commission

We received sad news this week that our friend, New Mexico artist Peter Rogers, who in 1964 painted the mural titled “Texas Moves Toward Statehood” in the lobby of the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building, died on May 28.

Peter Rogers, left, in 1964, painting “Texas Moves Toward Statehood,” and in July 2014.

Peter Rogers returned to TSLAC 50 years later in the summer of 2014 to revisit his mural, to meet current staff, and to recount the history of painting the mural. He dispelled a number of colorful stories about the mural while relating others that we had not heard before. Over the course of a day of meetings with staff, an oral history interview, and a public lecture on July 31, 2014, Peter Rogers left a personal impression as indelible and eloquent as the painting he left on the lobby wall in 1964.

Peter Rogers was born in England in 1933. In 1963 he met his wife, Carol Hurd, in Spain. Carol is the daughter of well-known American artist Peter Hurd who was married to the daughter of another great American artist, N.C. Wyeth. Peter Hurd had received a commission from the State of Texas to paint the mural in our lobby, but he passed the commission on to his new son-in-law in 1963. Relying on a standard Texas history book — Lon Tinkle’s 13 Days to Glory — and working at the kitchen table of his parents’ home in Sussex, England, Peter Rogers created a sweeping and dramatic panorama of Texas history from the days of the conquistadors to the 20th century.

Peter Rogers speaking at TSLAC, July 31, 2014.

While visiting with TSLAC staff, Peter dispelled some myths such as that the eyes of Sam Houston are painted so as to follow you as you walk through the lobby, or that he had painted his wife (the pioneer woman with the baby) and himself (the fallen Alamo defender) into the mural. All false, said Peter, and mostly the product of the “fertile imagination” of one Mrs. Golden who presided over the lobby in the building’s early years.

Peter also related a particularly vivid story that did in fact happen. Having intentionally left Mirabeau B. Lamar out of the mural, he found himself besieged by the Daughters of the

Peter Rogers signing prints of his mural with Archivist Rebecca Romanchuk.

Republic of Texas, one of whom appeared at the foot of his scaffold and pleaded tearfully to restore Lamar to his rightful place beside Anson Jones, third of the presidents of the Republic. “How could I not put him in,” said the artist and Lamar was eventually included.

Much of Peter Rogers’ later artwork was quite different from the mural, but it is the mural for which we and many Texans will remember him. To have Peter visit us and tell the story of the mural was to have a nearly mythological figure appear in our midst. He was a unique, fascinating, and thoroughly enjoyable gentleman. We will cherish our meeting with him and the part of him that will permanently remain central to the experience of all who work in or visit our building.

The obituary of Peter Rogers in the Santa Fe New Mexican: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/english-painter-became-part-of-new-mexico-tradition/article_da238d1f-fa24-5f15-a793-7d37236a9ff6.html

The commission and staff at TSLAC are well into the planning and budgeting season. This week we are submitting our Agency Strategic Plan for 2019-2023, which provides the basis of our Legislative Appropriations Request for 2020-2021. We met with our commission on Monday to discuss our plan for that budget request.

While we know it will be a challenging budget cycle, we have ongoing agency needs that we need to articulate. At present we are seeing several critical needs that will likely become exceptional item requests–state budget speak for additional funding requests– to the Legislature:

• Archives and records storage – We are quickly running out of space to store state records and archives, a situation accelerated by a combination of factors. To address the need in the short-term, we need an estimated $4.4 million, but to provide a more long-term solution (up to 25 years), we need an anticipated $26.4 million. It’s a big ask, but Texas is a big state and its citizens depend on open access to government information.
• Access to E-Resources – Based on our conversations with the statewide library community, the need for current, authoritative information in digital formats — especially E-Books — is still the most important statewide need and one that TSLAC is uniquely qualified to serve in a cost-effective way. We anticipate asking approximately $4.6 million to access to E-resources for users of public, academic and K-12 libraries across the state.
• Taking TSLAC to Texas communities – We are developing a proposal to conduct a statewide outreach of agency services to communities across the state. As part of this project, we are working on plans for a TSLAC-mobile that will be serve as a training site, best-practice demonstration, information technology showcase, and tour of our services. And in times of crisis, it could be equipped to serve as a disaster recovery unit to be deployed to libraries and other locations damaged by hurricanes and other natural disasters.
• Other agency needs – We anticipate other requests to address agency needs such as salary increases so that we can continue to recruit and retain great staff (we have made some progress, but 75% of our staff remain below the median of their state salary range); cybersecurity to ensure the safety of the state’s information and resources under our custody; and staff to assist with the growing boom in Public Information Act requests of which TSLAC by its nature has an inordinately high number.

Many thanks to all our stakeholders for your ongoing input on our planning and budget request. We look forward to working with our constituent groups of librarians, archivists, researchers, state and local government, and persons with disabilities to ensure that we have the resources to fulfill our mission to ensure that Texans have access to the information they need to lead informed, productive lives.

Georgetown PL Library Director Eric Lashley (center with tie) and Georgetown Mayor Dale Ross (center with jacket) celebrate the IMLS medal with the staff and supporters.

On May 1 the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced that the Georgetown Public Library was one of five libraries and five museums in the United States to win the National Medal for Library and Museum Services.

This is a very big deal.

In the first place, this is the highest award that a library in the United States can win. And Texas is very overdue: despite having several outstanding Texas libraries on the longer list of finalists in recent years, no Texas library has won since 2006. What’s more, Georgetown is only the third Texas library and only the second Texas public library to ever win the award in its over 20-year history (the other Texas winners were San Antonio Public in 2006 and the UT Health Sciences Library in 2004). Also, notably, the El Paso Museum of Art also won this year in the museum category–a good year for Texas!

I will be privileged and very excited to be in Washington D.C. on May 24 to see Georgetown Public Library win this award. They will be honored for their extraordinary level of responsiveness to their community, for their forward-looking programs, for creating a library that epitomizes the transformational library as learning center, technology hub, and center of civic and cultural engagement. Director Eric Lashley and his outstanding library team–with wholehearted support from the City and the Friends of the Library–have created a library that is popular, engaged, energetic, and relevant.

The medal is confirmation that while Texas libraries lag behind expenditures of most other states, our library staffs continue to do more with less, creating library services that is every bit as innovative and transformational as any other state. Congratulations and thank you to Georgetown for bringing this medal to Texas, and thank you to all the libraries and museums of Texas that provide great service everyday without national recognition.

It has been a very busy few weeks so I got behind on my blog. But a comment to me this week brought me back. This week three friends — longtime Texas library leaders — were visiting in my office. Knowing that they were particularly concerned with the plight of small community libraries, I made a comment that of course small community libraries are our most important clientele. It was a little joke because all of our client groups — which include libraries of all types and sizes, this historical community, local government, researchers, persons with disabilities, the general public, and state agencies — are really of equal importance and are equally valued.

My guests laughed, but it is true to say that small community libraries do occupy a very important position in terms of our array of services and many of the resources that we provide–particularly through our Library Development and Networking Division–are geared to benefit small community libraries. I thought it might be a useful to review a few of those:

• Continuing Education – through programs such as the Small Library Management program, which has been in operation for over 20 years, the Family Place program, and youth services workshops we devote significant resources to ensuring that libraries of all sizes, but especially small community libraries, have the training and grounding they need to provide the best possible library service. Our online webinars are particularly suited to librarians who do not have the funds or the back-up staff available to travel.
• Technology Support – TSLAC supports small library technology challenges in a variety of ways such as in-person training via the You Can Do IT Technology Training program, online training WebJunction, support for E-Rate access, and through our broadband project, Libraries Connecting Texas. See our Library Technology Resources page at https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ld/tech for more information.
• TexShare – This longstanding program has the capability to level the playing field and deliver to the smallest and most geographically isolated areas the same information resources enjoyed by large academic and urban public libraries. And for folks with few other ways to access these resources, access via their local libraries is more crucial than in more populous areas.
• Interlibrary loan – Via statewide ILL, it no longer matters that the book that a customer needs is not on the shelf. It is available for loan from another library somewhere in the state or nation.
• Edge – TSLAC purchases membership in Edge for every public library in the state. This is an outstanding tool that allows libraries to assess their technology readiness, benchmark against other libraries of similar size, and identify the gaps that need to be addressed.
• United for Libraries – TSLAC also purchases a membership for every library in Texas to United for Libraries. Formerly known as Friends of Libraries USA, UFL is a division of the American Library Association that provides training and assistance to library board members and Friends groups and contains much very interesting material about library management and operation for involved laypeople and staff.
• Library grants – Every year, TSLAC gives between $1.6 and $2 million in competitive grants for a variety of projects such as early literacy, STEM, workforce development, and digital preservation. Each year many of the libraries that participate in the competitive grants program are small community libraries.
• Library Science Collection – This longstanding program is Texas’ premier “Library for Librarians” providing access to professional reading and technical support materials for continuing education and to help with any project.
• Public Library Accreditation – The accreditation process for Texas public libraries has set minimum criteria for their operation, creating a floor upon which to build local service and support, which has been of particular value to small community libraries. Approximately 93% of Texas public libraries meet the minimum criteria and are accredited public libraries.

We salute the small community librarians of Texas who work valiantly against sometimes overwhelming odds and overcome great obstacles to bring library services to their communities. The work you do is so important and we will continue to seek ways to support what you do.