ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


440 / C&RL News ■ April 2001

Washington Hotline Emily Sheketoff

Almost a year ago, ALA and COSLA (Chief 
Officers of State Library Agencies) began 
thinking about reauthorization of the Library 
Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Inter­
ested groups came together to create a task 
force to start discussion on the reauthoriza­
tion of LSTA and what it should look like in 
the 21st century.

The task force met for the first time in 
June 2000 and began a series of in-depth dis­
cussions. Every library interest was repre­
sented, including ACRL, represented by your 
Executive Director, Althea H. Jenkins. We dis­
cussed how the program had been envi­
sioned, how it was working, and what needed 
to change. We concluded with a strong con­
sensus that this program had to continue serv­
ing all library constituencies in a very flex­
ible way. We believe it can.

There was a commitment by COSLA to 
consider all types of libraries, including aca­
demic libraries, in their states as they develop 
their state plans, and to develop those plans 
in a consultative manner. There was also rec­
ognition of a geographic inequity in the for­
mula that was made by doubling the re­
quested minimum allotment to the small 
states, which has been recommended to Con­
gress.

When LSTA was originally passed in 1996, 
the national leadership grants section of the 
law (a 4% set aside of the total amount ap­
propriated) was established to provide com­
petitive grants for projects with national scope. 
They include education and training, research 
and demonstration, and preservation and co­
operative projects between libraries and mu­
seums. Examples of some of the recent grants 
can be found on the Institute of Museum and 
Library Services (IMLS) Web site at http://www. 
imls.gov. You will see there that many of these 
grants have gone to academic libraries. Addi­
tionally, in many states academic libraries par­
ticipate in state library networks, often with 
some LSTA support.

Emily Sheketoff is executive director of ALA’s Washington 
Office; e-mail: esheketoff@alawash.org

There was also the realization that library 
programs have not always been evaluated in 
a manner comparable to other federal pro­
grams. So a new IMLS requirement for an 
annual evaluation of some parts of this pro­
gram has also been recommended to Con­
gress. This should give the library commu­
nity data to demonstrate its effective use of 
federal money in serving the public.

The representatives at these meetings 
agreed that all parts of the library commu­
nity must come together to support and ad­
vocate for this reauthorization. LSTA is au­
thorized and funded within the Museum and 
Library Services Act and administered through 
IMLS. The largest part of the LSTA program is 
distributed through state library agencies with 
funding to each state based upon a long­
standing formula.

We have now suggested to the staffs of 
Senators James Jeffords (R-Vermont) and Ed­
ward Kennedy (D-Maine) that it should be 
reauthorized at the $500-million level. It has 
most recently been funded at $207.2 million. 
Jeffords, chairman of the Senate HELP Com­
mittee, and Kennedy, the ranking Democrat, 
have agreed to co-sponsor this bill and we 
are awaiting the draft bill language. It will 
take a great deal of work on our part to get 
this bill into committee as we want it, re­
ported out of committee, and then success­
fully funded at the budget level we have stipu­
lated.

Everyone is needed to participate in this 
effort:

• everyone with a good story of library 
service to the community must share it;

• anyone with a good relationship with a 
member of Congress must make use of it; 
and

• every type of library must enlist its us­
ers to help us in this effort.

ALA has created a special Web site with 
the Association of Specialized and Coopera­
tive Library Agencies to collect and share “sto­
ries” that can be used to demonstrate how 
we serve the public in very real ways. Look 
for it by the end of May on the ALA Web site 
at http://www.ala.org. ■

imls.gov
http://www.ala.org
mailto:esheketoff@alawash.org