TENNESSEE LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY

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Library Issues in Tennessee (Legislative Day 2010)

Many of our issues are not at the legislation stage, but we are working to promote them through the State Library and Archives and other agencies, and we want to let legislators know about these initiatives.

Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL)

The Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) is a collection of 40 databases that provide access to over 400,000 magazines, newspapers, videos, e-books, primary source materials, and more. By providing access to these resources at the state-level, TEL saves Tennessee libraries millions of dollars each year. The TEL databases are available free of charge to any Tennessee resident and are accessible 24/7 from any computer with access to the Internet.

TEL receives money from both federal and state governments. We thank the General Assembly for its continuing support of the Secretary of State's efforts to fund TEL. However, funding for TEL by the state government is at a lower level than in the states surrounding us. TEL needs more funding to acquire additional resources for all Tennessee residents.

State-Wide Library Cooperation and Resource Sharing

Library budgets are not growing as fast as the prices of books and other materials. Popular titles need to be bought by all of the libraries; more esoteric books might be bought only by one library, which could lend them to other libraries.  For this system to work well and to work expeditiously, the libraries would need:

1.     A shared catalog  - so a user at one library could see what is available at other libraries. Such a catalog would be a larger scale version of the Nashville Public Library, in which a user can see which library branch has which items. The joint academic/public shared catalog between ETSU, Northeast State and the public libraries of the Watauga Region shares almost 2 million items.
2.     A state-wide courier services – so a user can obtain the items quickly. Watauga Regional Library’s state-owned van moves 60,000 items a year around the region at no cost to the libraries or to the patron.

A shared state-wide catalog and a state-wide courier service will save money for all libraries. We urge legislators to support continued funding for the State Library program (through the Secretary of State’s budget) so that the State Library can study these needs and bring future proposals for funding to the legislators.

Broadband

Broadband is the word used to describe high-speed telecommunications and, more specifically, high-speed Internet.

Because of the increasing reliance upon and need for libraries to use broadband telecommunications services, library groups have worked to support localities building public broadband networks. The Secretary of State has submitted a grant for $6 million in conjunction with the Office for Information Resources (OIR) and the Board of Regents to provide broadband access and computer labs in 66 rural counties.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 appropriated $7.2 billion to expand broadband access to unserved and underserved communities. We want to see libraries as a high priority for Tennessee stimulus funds.

In some states, corporate entities are pushing congressional and state legislators to pass laws prohibiting such public networks. We urge legislators to support building local networks, especially when the private sector is not willing to provide appropriate broadband access. We also urge legislators to be on the alert for companies who try to pass self-interested legislation to stop cities from providing local broadband networks.

Other Issues

Legislation has been proposed to ban smoking within 50 feet of a library entrance. This would be a great health benefit for library staff and users.
School librarians need a K-12 library coordinator at the Dept. of Education.
The Friends of the Libraries thank legislators for exempting Friends' book sales that benefit public libraries from paying state sales taxes.