Alabama citizens are being asked to share their views on public libraries during an October online statewide survey. Their opinions will help shape the future of the state’s public libraries, said Alabama Public Library Service Director Rebecca Mitchell.
The library survey begins October 1 and can be taken at any computer with Internet access. Citizens can submit the survey from their home, office or local public library. The online survey will be available through October 31. To access the survey online, visit http://webapp.slis.ua.edu/goals07 and follow the directions.
Mitchell urged citizens to take the survey. “We need input from the public to evaluate current services and to ensure libraries remain a vital part of the community in the future,” she said. APLS will use the information to develop a five-year plan for the state’s public libraries for 2008-2012.
Those who are unable to access the survey online can obtain a printed copy from their library and mail it to the School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama, Box 870252, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0252, ATTN: STATE PLAN.
The library wish-list of some citizens was heard at eight meetings held in the summer at locations throughout Alabama. The survey will allow anyone who did not attend a meeting to be heard.
The 2002-2007 plan identified priorities for the state’s public libraries, including reading programs for children and young adults, services for the underserved and for people with special needs.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Update on Decatur Public Library's funding
The Morgan County Commission gave the Wheeler libraries level funding. However, there was a change in the way the money was distributed and Decatur lost $5,964 to Eva, Falkville, and Priceville. Decatur agreed to the new distribution method as fair. The Decatur City Council also level funded the library. A public library cannot lose local government funding without losing state and federal funds.
I am going to try to convince the Board for the Alabama Library Service that this loss of revenue is a reapportionment not a cut. If I am successful the library will only lose $5,964. If I am not successful, the library will also lose $5,964 in state funding and $25,000 in federal funding. If I get a waiver for this year, the library will have to get the local governments to increase funding by $5,964 or face the possiblity of losing state and federal funds next year.
--Sandra Sherman-McCandless, Director
I am going to try to convince the Board for the Alabama Library Service that this loss of revenue is a reapportionment not a cut. If I am successful the library will only lose $5,964. If I am not successful, the library will also lose $5,964 in state funding and $25,000 in federal funding. If I get a waiver for this year, the library will have to get the local governments to increase funding by $5,964 or face the possiblity of losing state and federal funds next year.
--Sandra Sherman-McCandless, Director
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Further Observations from E-Rate training.
During a break Tuesday, large bins of canned drinks on ice were available in an open area of the conference center. What were not available at all however were garbage cans. No, instead of a few tastefully designed and discreetly located trash receptacles, the Atlanta Airport Hilton evidently thought it would project a better image to have a man in a tuxedo personally relocate the mounds of empty cans, used glasses, and dirty napkins that had collected on the tables to a large tray which he then carried away, presumably to the bowels of the hotel where they have facilities for dealing with that sort of thing. It was absolutely ridiculous.
So, to reiterate, the Hilton management doesn’t see anything odd about making their employees dress better than the hotel’s guests and then have them publicly handle garbage without gloves. You know, that actually goes a long way toward explaining why Paris turned out the way she did.
As for the actual training…
I speak some German, a tiny bit of Japanese, I’m learning Tech, and I’m fluent in several dialects of Geek (no I didn’t leave out an R), but I am not at all conversant in Bureaucrat so I barely understood a third of what was said during the presentations, at least not the parts for which I was able to stay awake. I did discover during the Q&A portions that I’m not the only one who thinks PIA minions are infernal. A healthy percentage of the questions were along the line of “Even though you just finished saying that X was all we needed to document, my PIA contact keeps telling me I also have to provide additional documentation, wash his car, and swear fealty to the dark lord of Program Integrity.” The USAC trainers, feigning shock that professional bureaucrats would be obstructionist, go on to respond “I’ll be happy to check into it for you. In order to find your records I just need you to give me your Funding Request Number, Billed Entity Number, Service Provider Identification Number, all the stuff PIA asked for, a pound of flesh, and your immortal soul.”
Seriously, the training mostly consisted of people reciting the incomprehensible documentation that’s already on USAC’s website. They completely missed the point that anybody is capable of reading that stuff; we just can’t make any sense of it. They made zero effort to explain why you’re required to enter the same number in nine different fields on the same form or which forms have to be filled out when sacrificing an annoying neighbor to PIA. They did hand out a chart which allegedly shows the correct filing process, but it may as well have been a flow chart of Deep Blue’s process for determining chess moves or a circuit diagram for the chip in a vending machine that makes it refuse to take quarters.
The vast majority of people at the training seemed to be there to find answers to specific questions only to be told “I’m reluctant to give a general answer to that without knowing the details. If you’ll come find me after this session and provide the specifics I’ll try to help you or you can contact USAC directly.” Well THAT’s helpful to other people having a similar problem. Why exactly are we here again?
So, to reiterate, the Hilton management doesn’t see anything odd about making their employees dress better than the hotel’s guests and then have them publicly handle garbage without gloves. You know, that actually goes a long way toward explaining why Paris turned out the way she did.
As for the actual training…
I speak some German, a tiny bit of Japanese, I’m learning Tech, and I’m fluent in several dialects of Geek (no I didn’t leave out an R), but I am not at all conversant in Bureaucrat so I barely understood a third of what was said during the presentations, at least not the parts for which I was able to stay awake. I did discover during the Q&A portions that I’m not the only one who thinks PIA minions are infernal. A healthy percentage of the questions were along the line of “Even though you just finished saying that X was all we needed to document, my PIA contact keeps telling me I also have to provide additional documentation, wash his car, and swear fealty to the dark lord of Program Integrity.” The USAC trainers, feigning shock that professional bureaucrats would be obstructionist, go on to respond “I’ll be happy to check into it for you. In order to find your records I just need you to give me your Funding Request Number, Billed Entity Number, Service Provider Identification Number, all the stuff PIA asked for, a pound of flesh, and your immortal soul.”
Seriously, the training mostly consisted of people reciting the incomprehensible documentation that’s already on USAC’s website. They completely missed the point that anybody is capable of reading that stuff; we just can’t make any sense of it. They made zero effort to explain why you’re required to enter the same number in nine different fields on the same form or which forms have to be filled out when sacrificing an annoying neighbor to PIA. They did hand out a chart which allegedly shows the correct filing process, but it may as well have been a flow chart of Deep Blue’s process for determining chess moves or a circuit diagram for the chip in a vending machine that makes it refuse to take quarters.
The vast majority of people at the training seemed to be there to find answers to specific questions only to be told “I’m reluctant to give a general answer to that without knowing the details. If you’ll come find me after this session and provide the specifics I’ll try to help you or you can contact USAC directly.” Well THAT’s helpful to other people having a similar problem. Why exactly are we here again?
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Abandon all hope ye who file E-Rate
I'm in Atlanta this week for E-Rate training. What is E-Rate? My initial response (and that of most E-Rate coordinators I know) is “Be glad you don't know.” It is a bane, a thorn in our collective side (and other discreet anatomical locations), a burden, a bureaucratic morass, and a real BEAR (Billed Entity Application for Reimbursement, an E-Rate coordinator inside joke).
You know those seemingly hundreds of little charges on your phone bill that the phone companies go out of their way not to explain? Well look at your bill and you’ll probably see that one of them is called USAC (Universal Service Administrative Company). All the USAC charges go into a pot and schools and libraries can request reimbursement from that fund to help pay for telecommunications and internet costs. Depending on the percentage of students on the free and reduced lunch program in the service area, E-Rate could pay 20-90% of a school or library's telcom bills.
The catch is that while they take in between two and three billion dollars a year they receive requests for about four billion so a great deal of thought and effort seem to have been spent in making the application process as pointless, complicated, and painful as humanly possible. E-Rate paperwork makes tax forms look reasonable.
Of course you can’t just file an application. You file an intent to open bids for service, then after a certain amount of time you file an application. Then you are bombarded with the most asinine and nitpicky questions imaginable by a low level demonic entity who works for PIA (Program Integrity Assurance or as I like to think of it Process of Increasing Annoyance). My personal theory is that if they deny enough applications they get to trade in their nerf pitchforks for real ones. A typical call from PIA goes something like this:
You know those seemingly hundreds of little charges on your phone bill that the phone companies go out of their way not to explain? Well look at your bill and you’ll probably see that one of them is called USAC (Universal Service Administrative Company). All the USAC charges go into a pot and schools and libraries can request reimbursement from that fund to help pay for telecommunications and internet costs. Depending on the percentage of students on the free and reduced lunch program in the service area, E-Rate could pay 20-90% of a school or library's telcom bills.
The catch is that while they take in between two and three billion dollars a year they receive requests for about four billion so a great deal of thought and effort seem to have been spent in making the application process as pointless, complicated, and painful as humanly possible. E-Rate paperwork makes tax forms look reasonable.
Of course you can’t just file an application. You file an intent to open bids for service, then after a certain amount of time you file an application. Then you are bombarded with the most asinine and nitpicky questions imaginable by a low level demonic entity who works for PIA (Program Integrity Assurance or as I like to think of it Process of Increasing Annoyance). My personal theory is that if they deny enough applications they get to trade in their nerf pitchforks for real ones. A typical call from PIA goes something like this:
PIA: For Funding Request Number ***** the contract end date listed is (insert date). I just need you to fax me the contract with your service provider showing that date along with sizable blood and tissue samples from yourself and all members of your immediate family.
Me: Yes. I tried to explain this last time. You see, it’s an open-ended contract and there is no specified end date, but at the time we first filed a form for this service provider, you required an end date so we provided an arbitrary one and you said that was sufficient. In subsequent years, you changed the requirements. What do I need to do to stipulate that it’s open-ended? I have lots of documentation from the service provider explaining the situation. Could I perhaps send that along with the soul of a FedEx driver we cornered in cataloging?
PIA: Great, so if you’ll just fax the contract showing that end date we’ll get right to ignoring it. Do you need an extension?
Me: Wait. You see, the contract…it…you…oh, never mind. Yes, I need an extension please.
PIA: OK, I’ll call you back the day after the deadline.
Me: When exactly is the deadline?
PIA: It’s listed online.
Me: Could you be a little more specific?
PIA: You go to the main USAC page, then click on Applications and enter your 87 digit application number. Then click on Deadlines, then Arbitrary, then Convoluted, then Kobayashi Moru. It will then prompt you to enter the application date after which it will generate a random date that isn't the real deadline, but gives you false sense of accomplishment. That’s really not necessary though. You can calculate the deadline yourself by adding 28, 29, 340, or negative 8 days to the application date.
Me: Which number of days do I use for this application?
PIA: Great, I’ll be looking for that contract then. Oh, and I see you’ve also been awarded an audit this year. The auditor for your region, a Mr. Torquemada, will be contacting you soon. Please have all paperwork for the last five years, including credit card applications you received in the mail, available when he arrives.
Me: But…
PIA: Do you need any MORE assistance? [maniacal laughter]
Me: Um, no, thank you.
If you survive PIA and actually get approved, you then have to file another form within so many days, and yet another form twice a year to get the money. I won't even go into the required Technology Plans.
Well, this post was actually fun to write and they frown on that sort of thing so I’d better get back to the ninth circle of training.
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