Meeting Minutes

NCLA Governmental Relations Committee Meeting
May 19, 2000
Wilson Library, UNC-CH

Present: Peggy Hoon, Nancy Gibbs, Larry Alford, Deanna Harris, John Via, Jim Kuhlman, David Paynter

Notes from meeting:

1. Charge:

The charge to the committee was reviewed and discussed as well as the hopes for this committee expressed by NCLA President Al Jones. In the past, according to Via, the committee has been concerned only with federal legislation and issues. State legislation/issues has been primarily handled through the University of North Carolina General Administration and the association of directors of public libraries. Paynter described some of the activities of the directors’ group and the committee felt it would be appropriate to be in sync, as much as possible, with strategies and goals of that group where state issues were involved.

2. Discussion of Issues/Goals:

The committee had an open discussion concerning what the committee might want to accomplish for NCLA and North Carolina libraries; it reviewed some material from websites of other state library association governmental relations committees to get an idea of what we might want to do; a discussion was had about being set up to be not only reactive but to be proactive. Some other topics included:

o NCLA could indicate what the needs of libraries are state-wide
o Need a well-funded preservation effort in the state (digitization), especially of local history records
o The committee could present the association with a vision of where we want to go and a legislative agenda
o Coordinating with other NCLA committees
o UCITA; draft resolutions for NCLA
o Doing a survey (electronic/paper) of the issues out there; an environmental scan of the issues plus extend out into the future; building to proactivity
o Determining what kind of help we need
o Surveying librarians (maybe electronically) – would they be interested in attending a conference to develop a legislative agenda for NCLA for the next 5-10 years? [feedback] (this exercise could also function as a consciousness-raising)
o Identify issues that are not just about money
o What is the role of libraries as people get more access from home? What about the underserved people at home?
o Is the historical role of libraries changing with the web? (moralistic, qualitative level)
o Possibly a 2 hour workshop on how to talk to legislators
o NCLIVE needs more money
o Develop a committee website with links to legislators and other relevant information
o Survey NCLA members to find out who is in what legislative district; develop a grass-roots network for contacting the appropriate legislators on pertinent issues, federally and at the state level
o Visit as many legislators as possible
o Work with NCLA to establish a process for sending resolutions to our committee that embody legislative issues for inclusion in the legislative agenda.